Witness Boarding
by rq13
Summary: First story, Puzzleshipping and character bashing ahead. Yugi, the social outcast at Domino Boarding School. Yami, the popular guy. When he's put into Yugi's care under witness protection for the biggest take-over heist in recent history, how will he cope
1. Chapter 1

**First (published) story, so no flames, please.**

**Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! So don't sue.**

**Prologue**

In an unsuspecting boarding school in the middle of a small city, something dark and sinister was stirring. Set up in the abandoned basement under the gym, the head quarters of the biggest take-over heist in recent history buzzed with gossip. The leader of the plan, known as Dartz, was in a bad mood, and anyone with half a brain would know not to interrupt him during his tantrum.

The aqua-haired man hurled yet another chair across the room. He swiped everything off the desk and onto the floor, despite how important any of the papers might be. He slammed his fists down onto the mahogany wood and growled. Dartz was a patient man and rarely lost his temper. When he did, you could assume the worst; the absolute worst.

He had seen. He knew. That boy, a _child,_ no less, had stumbled upon the Dartz's plans without even trying or having any prior knowledge of what was going on. No-one who wasn't directly involved had any clue what-so-ever that anything was happening. Dartz knew the police had been informed, it had been on the news, but he didn't know the extent.

A hesitant knock resounded across the room from the double doors.

"What?" Dartz ground out, whipping around and glaring at the intruder. It was one of his undercover people, who had wormed their way into the mayor's office. "What have you found out?"

"W-well, sir," the man replied nervously, "the boy has been put into witness p-protection, sir."

"Where?" Dartz asked. He needed to know, or else the threat couldn't be dealt with.

"I-I don't k-know, si-ir." The man had started to tremble under Dartz's two-coloured gaze.

Dartz growled. "Fetch me Ushio. I want a full report on this boy. Age, name, address, dental records! Just find him!"

"Y-yes, sir." The man scurried away, glad to be out of the master's presence. A few minutes later, a large, hulking figure appeared the door. He was dressed in the Domino Boarding School boy's uniform. Blue pants, jacket and white button-up shirt.

"You wanted me, Master Dartz?" he questioned.

"Ah, Ushio, I believe you are aware that one of your classmates came across us. Do you know him?" Dartz raised an elegant eyebrow, daring the teenager to defy knowledge.

"His name is Yami, sir. Yami Sennen. He's in a few of my classes, he gets average grades, and I'm in his gang. He's Seto Kaiba's cousin and his father owns Sennen-Industries. His mother is principal of the school." Ushio fired off what he knew about the fellow teen, sole heir to the computer gaming company, Sennen-Industries.

"Social status?" Dartz inquired.

"Most popular boy in school, sir, at the moment he's dating the head cheerleader, Tea Gardner." Ushio answered.

Dartz took this in with a look of thought. If he was popular, then he wouldn't enjoy being in witness protection, as it would remove him from the loop of recent happenings in the teenager's lifestyle. Thus, unless he was smart, he would cause a scene, alert someone where he was, then bingo! Dartz silently congratulated himself on his own intelligence.

He dismissed Ushio, then summoned his personal servant, a green-haired boy named Weevil Underwood. The boy adjusted his large, round glasses and spoke in a squeaky voice. "What is it, sir?"

"Go to the library. Get me a yearbook or a magazine or something that has a personal page on this Yami character. Go!" Dartz swiped his fist at Weevil.

The nerd of the school scurried away to the school library. He only had to put up with this for a while longer, now that his plan was coming together; another year, at most. He slunk up the stairs and into the gym. Across the courts that were his enemy and through the roller doors he went. Around the sports field, into the lobby, up the stairs to the second floor. He knew this trail by heart. Through the dusty old door that hardly anyone knew about that was just next to the janitor's office and into a maze of shelves.

This door was never used unless you knew where it led to or if it was even there. It gave you an unseen way into the library on the round second floor with a large view point that let you see to the ground level. Weevil snuck through the Ancient History section and to the old magazine archives. He dug around until he found a few good articles.

Stuffing them away into his jacket, Weevil headed back to Dartz's head quarters. Soon, he reminded himself, soon it would all be over. And it was all thanks to Yami Sennen.

**Usual stuff, R&R, tell me what you think. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Yugi is OOC, a race horse is threatening, Mai has arrived, Vivian, Tea and minor Rebecca bashing are involved. Just a warning. This is mostly introducing the school and characters, not much real stuff happens. This is a kinda long chapter, since I probably won't get another one done for two weeks or so with school and stuff.**

**Thanks for all the alerts, faves and reviews, too! Didn't think that'd actually happen...**

**Still don't own.**

**Chapter 1**

Yugi's POV

The start of the school year. Oh, the joy of it. That wonderful sense of excitement of dissecting a toad, the tingle in your fingers when you get your very favourite teacher gives you a brand new pen, the other students moving in and decorating their dorms in the hallowed halls of the boarding school...

Yeah, right.

It's hectic. People fight for the best rooms in the cheapest dorm block while the popular, rich kids lounge about in their singular, double-sized rooms in the fancy apartments that their parents get for them. The sound of people arguing with their roommates about whose side of the room is whose floats and echoes about the crowded corridors. And, it always happens, the oh-so-embarrassing moment when somebody trips, falls and drops their things everywhere.

The subject of this year's public humiliation is me, Yugi Mutou. I am currently sprawled out over the floor in the hall of the cheapest block of dorm rooms in Domino Boarding School. My belongings are, thankfully, still in the many boxes that have tumbled along the floor. The students around me laugh, some being polite enough to stifle their giggles, but no one offers me any help as I feel my face burn in embarrassment. I quickly gather my boxes into a pile that's easily as tall as my own annoyingly – and amazingly – short 5 foot stature. I pick them up with few casualties and continue on down the hall of the ground floor. I reach the only stairwell that leads down into the basement, the absolute lowest you could be in Domino. Since everyone else is on the ground floor or higher, I retreat into the darkness of the basement, safe from the taunting laughter for a moment.

I slink into the small, grey corridor between two doors; the one on the left is a maintenance closet with brooms, buckets, scrubbers and the like, the other is my room that I found on my first year here after I was bullied out of my room. I open the door, stepping into the dark space. I drop my belongings and fumble in the dark for a moment before flicking the light on. I put the boxes down then wipe a hand across my, apparently (this is other people's opinions, not mine) wide, 'innocent' amethyst eyes. To me, they're just big and a weird purple, but nooo. I've got a really light, near-invisible dusting of tiny freckles across my cheeks and nose. My hair is what gets me most of the attention I do get, whether I want it or not. It's shaped like a star and naturally springs out from my head in three colours; ebony black base tipped in purple with golden-blonde bangs hanging in front of my eyes.

I'm slightly naive, yes, and a little too trusting. Give me a good enough apology, I'll probably forgive you. With that forgiveness always comes an invitation to be friends. There are few people that offer is not going to be given to.

I glance around the dark room. It is as large as the most expensive rooms in Domino (take _that_, rich kids!), but far less fancy. The walls are bare, revealing the grey stone, and the floor has a thin covering of dusty wood.

Since I've been in this room for almost three years and not even the janitor knows about it, a few of my bigger bits of furniture add a... personal touch to the room. There's a book case, some shelves, two beanbags, a bed and a desk with a chair, all of which are set up just like they are at home. I use the storage closet to my advantage, too, by adding a chest of drawers and a hanging rack. It's about the size of a small walk-in wardrobe.

I hurriedly dump my things then head back up stairs to look for my grand total of three friends; Ryou Bakura, Joey Wheeler and Malik Ishtar.

_I hope that _they_ don't cause me too much trouble this year._ Ever since my first year, _they_ have made my life hell. Even if they don't do it directly, they don't do anything to stop it. I crash into a very human wall and tumble painfully backwards down several stairs. _Owwwww._ Note to self; stairs and thoughts are a bad combination. A groan that isn't mine comes from a bit above me. I look up and there, about eleven steps up, sat on his butt, is my part albino friend, Ryou.

He's got pale skin and white hair, like an albino, but doe-brown eyes. He has soft features that make him look a year or two younger than he is, but still not as young as I look. Damn.

"Yugi?" he asks, rubbing is head. "You dead?" he's referring to the question-response that Joey came up with when he declared us friends. If you're dead, you're in pain, but alright. If not, shut up and stop complaining. If no response, you really _are_ dead.

"Yeah, Ry. I'm dead." I answer pitifully. "We should look for the others." I suggest. He nods, helps me to my feet then gives me a hug.

We reach the ground floor of the building. Hardly anyone is around, but there's a lot of noise in the larger hall by the front door. I send a worried glance at Ryou. He returns it and we rush towards the commotion.

There is a ruckus going on, people shouting and pushing to get a better view. In the middle of the crowd of leering students, are two people fighting. _Oh, please; not again._ Using our smaller size to our advantage, me and Ryou slip through the crowd of people mostly without them noticing. In a clearing of red carpet in the middle are two boys fighting. One is tall and blonde with honey eyes and the other is of average height and slightly overweight. The blonde is tackier; I guess you could say, then some of the others here. With a fist to the other boy's face, the blonde wins. Next to me, I hear Ryou sigh.

Joey finally notices us (not like we don't stand out enough already) and grins. "Yug'! Ry!" he declares and happily squeezes the life out of us both in what resembled a hug.

I awkwardly pat his head, since he is just under twice my height. "It's nice to see you too, but you don't have to fight." I criticise him. He ruffles my hair and barks with laughter, poking Ryou in the ribs in his own 'hello'.

After prying the over-sized dog (no matter how much he denies it, Joey is very much like a puppy) off us, he says hello like the slightly-normal people most of us are. I say most...

All three of us are suddenly tackled to the ground by an unstoppable force. It is revered by some, terrifying to others, some people just don't know what the f$k the authoress is talking about by now, and personally, neither do I.

A head of sandy blonde hair burries itself into the pile of people it has created as if it is the last day on Earth. Under the unruly hair is Egyptian tanned skin. Slightly crazed lavender eyes gaze up me. "Yugi..." he says, totally mystified, "I think... I-I think you've grown!"

Well, _that_ was anti-climatic.

Malik Ishtar has dished out his first, but certainly not his last, glomp of the new school year. To glomp: verb; to tackle-hug with no intention to but always results in the inability to breathe. Speaking of breathing...

"Malik! Gerroff!" Ryou's British accent demands, "I can't breathe!"

"You dead?"

"Yes, I'm very, very dead."

With everyone here, we take a moment to decide where to go first. Figuring we'd drop off Ryou, Joey and Malik's bags at the room they all shared, we drag the abandoned items up four flights of stairs, down the corridor and into room 158 **(A/N: one of my fave episodes).**

There are three rickety beds – one against the left wall, one in the middle and one on the right – a bedside table for each bed, a cupboard and a desk by the window that overlooks the road beside the school.

Carelessly tossing the luggage through the door, Malik drags us down to my basement – and, yes, it is _mine_. He flops onto the unmade bed, Joey claims one beanbag, Ryou the other and I sit on the desk chair.

"Game plan?" Joey asks randomly. He means 'how are we going to get through this year?'

"Get at least a C, avoid _that_ group, get laid, go home." Malik answered from the bed.

"That's never going to happen," Ryou says helpfully, "I'm going to get a B, not get beat up, go outside more and enjoy a relaxing break from home." He leans back into the beanbag.

"High ambitions." I mutter. Not the B, or the break from home, I'm not sure about the outside, but getting beat up is a given. Ryou isn't as tough as me; I get the brunt of the attacks. I'm not bragging, but it's true.

"I'm gonna get a C at least, move up the social ladder, and I _will_ talk to that Seto guy this year!" Joey declares.

"You're obsessed with him. I'm going to pass; I'm going to avoid the sun, stand up to _that_ group and graduate early so I never have to see this place again." I say. I know that I'm never going to graduate early, no one ever has from this school, you just repeat the last year if you're that good.

And it's not that I don't like the sun, it's that I see too much of it at home. Living on a ranch 2 ½ hour's drive away from a town with a population of 250 in an almost-desert, you're bound to get a tan. Thankfully, mine fades over the school year so no one notices.

Joey gets up, cracks his back and declares that we should go outside and check out the newbies. Yes, new people sentenced to time in a boarding school are always fun. Maybe they'll take _that_ group's interest enough for them to not go after us. Not that I'm that hopeful for that, but it's worth a shot.

We head out to the grassed field between the three blocks of dorms here and the school buildings. There are a few people kicking a ball around, a group of girls sitting under a big oak tree chatting and making enough noise for a rodeo and... _That_ group.

Crap, they've seen us. Well, it was gonna be sooner or later.

I should probably explain _that_ group. I'm not the most creative person; I couldn't come up with a better name. It consists of about eleven people, all either insanely rich, insanely popular, or both.

There are three strong guys: Ushio, the tower of power; Hugh, the man with the worst name in the world; and Jacob, notorious pot-head.

Then there are the three girls: Rebecca, the snobbish genius, granddaughter of archaeologist, Arthur Hawkings (a friend of my own grandfather, not that Rebecca knows); Vivian Wong, Chinese hussy (actress turned Kung Fu Champion with a few other careers in between)**(A/N: hussy means slut, but mum said that was racist... don't see how...)**; and Tea Gardner, head cheerleader and girlfriend of the most popular boy in school.

The one pretty boy; Duke Devlin. He's the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters, a popular game across the world.

The group also has the young CEO, Seto Kaiba, in their midst. Cold as ice and six feet tall, he's very intimidating. He's also the guy Joey has a crush on.

The last three are the most popular guys in school. No one denies them, says anything against them or defies their rules or voices any disagreement. They are all super rich, super popular, untouchable and incredible handsome.

Marik Ishtal has a dark, Egyptian tan, sandy blonde hair that spikes up dangerously and wild lilac eyes. He has muscles, a deep voice and a fetish for blood.

Bakura Akefia shares this fetish. He's also part albino. Sharp reddish-brown eyes glare out from pale skin under spiky, horn-like white hair. He and Marik looked like Ryou and Malik from an alternate universe.

The last and most popular guy in school ever – really, they've done a study on it – is Yami Sennen. Tea's boyfriend. I think that's the only reason she's in that group. Yami has angled crimson eyes, ebony hair tipped in red that sticks out in a faulty star with jagged blonde bangs that hang down the sides of his sharp, mature face. He's very handsome, even if I hate to admit, I possible-maybey-kinda-sorta have a _tiiiiiny_ crush on him. Tiny.

Did I mention that these guys look like me, Ryou and Malik?

They've been bullying us since first year, and it's gotten worse since. At first it was just verbal teasing. Then it just got insulting and hurtful. After that, they started stealing and tormenting us. Two years ago was the first time they beat us up. It hurt Ryou the worst, feminine as he is. Malik, Joey and I can stand it, even fight back if we wanted. It became almost a daily thing after that. They broke Ryou's arm once. Thank heavens they don't know my basement even exists.

There's someone new this year. She's curvy and has long, wavy blonde hair. She's kind of familiar... "Mai?"

She stops and turns to face me. She's got violet eyes. That's definitely Mai. "Yugi? Cousin Yugi?"

"Hey! What are you doing here?" I ask. She sprints towards me, away from the confused looks and indignant shouts she gets from the group and those she knocks over in her bid to get to me. She flings her arms around me and, since I get this every reunion, I manage to keep my feet.

She snuggles for a second before releasing me, keeping a tight grasp on my hands. "Mama moved and the school was too far away to get too every day. Here is closer, even if it is a boarding school. "How's my little bro doing?" Mai doesn't seem to remember we're only cousins much, she sees me as her little brother.

"I'm fine, but you won't be if you stick around with me." I tell her and stand on my tip-toes to look over her shoulder at _that_ group. Some are glaring, some are still confused, but they're all heading over this way. Ryou nervously ducks behind Joey and Malik, who tense up. Mai twists her head, not releasing her grip on me to face them.

When they reach us, everyone is glaring, and I can't help but notice that Yami and Tea have put as many people between them as possible. That's odd; she's usually hanging off his arm. "Mai," Tea grinds out, flipping her shoulder-length brown hair out of her blue eyes, "what are you doing with _him_?"

"I'm giving my relative a hug. What does it look like?" Mai huffed and turned around fully, keeping a hand on mine.

"You're related to _that_?" Vivian pitched in. Her almond-shaped eyes are narrowed dangerously under her long black hair.

"Yes, if you have a problem with that, you can take it up with Kentucky Moonshine." Mai threatened. Kentucky Moonshine was a large, intimidating race horse. The chestnut mare was bred on my ranch and given to Mai's father as a gift from my mother. She was trained well and was now a house hold name. **(A/N: Kentucky Moonshine was a real horse that a friend of my dad owned. She wasn't that famous, but she is here.)**

"No, no, that's fine." Yami's deep baritone voice denies. Tch, probably doesn't want to mess up his pretty face.

"Whatever, hun." Mai turns back to me. "Are these guys teasing you?"

"Don't do this, Mai, please. I can look after myself. Just go." I try to reason. Mai is very protective of her family and her pride. She's gotten into fights over it before, plenty of times.

"Fine, if you want to waste your time with _them_, we're leaving." Rebecca huffed. The blonde whipped around, her hair smacking Tea in the face and stormed off. Most of the group followed her – except Yami. He hovered behind, almost anxiously. _Is he just staying to torment us?_ I wondered.

"Ignore 'em," He says to Mai, "They're just stubborn."

"Oh, like you aren't?" I question, "You were convinced I was a ten-year-old until you checked my record – and you didn't even believe _that_ until you and your friends crashed my birthday!"

Domino Boarding School started in ninth grade, when you were fourteen. Annoyingly, I looked like a ten-year-old then; Yami actually looked his age, despite being short. Him and his friends first thought I was one of the teacher's children, until they looked at my records – Yami had all the teachers eating out of his hand, he could access that kind of information. He could get away with murder with just one wink at Mrs Williamson, the principal. On my first birthday at the school, me, Joey, Ryou, Malik and, at the time, Tea (she used to actually be remotely human-like) had a miniature celebration on the oval – until Yami and friends came and trashed it.

Since then, I've tried to avoid outside displays of happiness, especially around them. It'll all just come crashing down.

Yami eyes me oddly, as if it's the first time he's seen me. Yes, I finally hit puberty over the holidays and got over my acne and voice changes. I look fifteen, now! Success!

He backs away, keeping his eyes on mine. _What's with that?_ He mumbles something that sounds like 'see ya' and walks away, towards the main building of the school that has the cafeteria, science rooms, staff rooms and the principal's office.

When he's gone, Mai huffs again. "Well," she says, "I didn't like them anyway. Too stuck up." She continues to ramble on, listing the ways she'd like to castrate Duke for hitting on her, Seto for being such a prick, Bakura for being stubborn, Marik for being stalker-ish, Ushio for threatening everyone who looked at him wrong, she lost me at Duke.

"Aww, diddums. Such a hard life you lead." I tease her. She sticks her tongue out at me and pulls down her left eye with a 'nyah!'

"Put that away unless you're gonna use it." I tap her nose.

She sobers up and introduces herself to Ryou, Malik and Joey. "Hey, I'm Mai, Yugi's cousin. He's told me about you lot." I make sure to keep in touch with Mai. E-mail, phone calls, texting, basically anything that works for communication.

"Well, 'den, you already know us! What say we head to da gym? No-one's ever 'dere." Joey flung his arm out in the general direction of the cursed building.

"Uh, sorry, I have gym-phobia. I'll pass." Ryou mutters. He'd always hated the gym, since he was locked in the storage room by Ushio on April Fool's Day two years ago. He'd never been the same since. He couldn't last more than a day in my basement because of it.

"Aw, c'mon!" Malik grabs Ryou's wrist and drags him along, "It'll be fine!"

We reach the steel structure and march through the open doors. True to Joey's word, no-one was there. While Joey and Malik challenged each-other to a lap around the courts, Ryou and Mai sat against the wall, discussing where Mai got her shoes, of all things.

I trek along the side, past the cage-like cupboard that held hockey sticks, baseball bats and tubs of tennis rackets. A locked door to the underground storage was next to it, but that was always locked. A thick layer of dust coated the handle, so no-one had opened it for probably years. A small, grubby window lets in a little light, I could barely see through it.

Wait... is that... Ushio? And _Weevil Underwood_? Weevil, of all people, is the last I would expect to see with Ushio, well, without being beaten up. They talk a little more before parting ways, each heading in a different direction.

"Huh..." I muse to myself. That was odd.

"Yug'!" Joey calls, puffing after his aimless running, "We're gonna head back to da basement."

"I'm coming." I quickly agree. Anywhere not in the gym is good.

Now safely back in the underground room, I hassle my friends into helping me unpack. I do my personal stuff, while Ryou goes through my shoes. Strange obsession... but, it's better than the occult stuff he was into a while back. I take out my light bulb – it's personalised, with purple glass and painted spider-web patterns on it – and grab the desk chair, dragging it over to the average, normal light in the middle of the ceiling. I climb up, hoping I can actually reach it this year. _Come on, just a bit further..._ even on my tip-toes with my arms stretched as far s they go, I'll have to get Joey to do it. Again.

"Um, Joey... could you..." I trail off. He gives me a knowing grin and pulls me off the chair. He stands on it, purposely bending his knees and hunching his shoulder dramatically just to get on my nerves about my height. He takes out the old bulb after Mai turns it off at the wall and screws in my own one. Mai flips the switch again and the room is bathed in a creepy purple glow with dark, wispy shadows here and there. _Now_ it's just like home.

"Damn."Mai whistles her approval. "Nice."

"Thanks." I reply.

"Uh, Yugi," Ryou sticks his head out of the closet, "Malik found your leather."

"NO!" I hiss, "Bad Malik! Git out've it!" I scold him like I scold Tristan's dog, Sergeant, at home. He raises his head from where it was buried in a pair of my leather pants and looks at me oddly. He draws back his lips and hisses like a cat.

"I want your leather pants." He declares.

I sigh and roll my eyes, "Yes, yes, I know. But they're mine. I'll tell your sister what you did last term." I threaten. Let's just say, it involved a pound of confetti, a thirsty penguin and a piñata.

His eyes widen and he shakes his head frantically, flinging my pants back to me like they burned him. "Don't tell Ishizu!"

I smugly put my pants in the drawer and drag him from the room.

He flops ungracefully into a beanbag while I practically lie on Joey who has claimed my bed. Mai is perched daintily on the chair, looking like she wants to ask something. "So... what's it like here?" she finally questions.

"Well, we have two days to settle in before classes start. We still have weekends off, so we can go to the city by bus." Ryou answers, "Uniforms are only for school days." The boy's uniform was a white button-up shirt and blue jacket with matching pants. The girl's uniform consists of a blue skirt, pink jacket and blue bow on the chest. Mai had pushed her sleeves up to her elbows.

"Anyway, you're a grade above us, so we can't help you much there." I add. Since she was eighteen and us only seventeen, she would only have to be here one this one year.

"_And_, since you was hangin' out wit' him, you could tell us... did Seto mention me? At all?" Joey pipes up, nervously chewing his knuckle and lounging across my stomach as he does.

"No, why?" Mai replies, completely oblivious.

"Oh." Joey says simply. I can see the hurt in his eyes, but he's never even spoken to Seto, he couldn't expect all that much, and Mai didn't know about his crush.

"Although," she continues, "Bakura started talking about his 'little look-a-like' and he and Marik got in a conversation about it. Then they started teasing Yami about some crush. He and Tea are fighting, apparently."

"Oh, really?" I say mildly, feigning disinterest. _They were fighting? Maybe he'll start talking to me! No, bad Yugi. Get over yourself._ Just because I have a miniscule crush on one of the most handsome boys in school – honestly, what gay guy doesn't? – doesn't mean I can get my hopes up just because he had a disagreement with his *shudder* girlfriend. But... *sigh* he _is_ gorgeous. I'm not the only one with a popular crush; Malik has a picture of Marik in his maths book – a place no one has ever dared venture (apart from me) – and Ryou, despite being afraid of him, has a thing for Bakura. Joey has his obsession for Seto who is, coincidently, Yami's cousin.

Despite all this, it was getting dark. Ryou, Joey and Malik still had to unpack, as did Mai, who also had to trek across campus to the fancier dorms. As I bid them all good bye at the stairwell and headed back to my bed, being too lazy to actually make it I just tossed down a few pillows and pulled mu duna **(A/N: duvet, whatever you wanna call it)** over my head.

First day at Domino Boarding School has been successfully survived.

**Its late, but I wanted to get this up. The end is kinda rushed, but whatever.**

**Usual stuff, R&R**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm sorry about the wait, but my laptop literally broke in half (don't ask; it involved face book, a midget and a can of Sunkist) and I came down with a severe case of writers block. Fever, brain-damage and everything.**

**Alright, usual thanks and disclaimer. By the way, I just realised that I used a quote from the movie with the Jamaican bob-sledders (that was a good movie...) in the last chapter, which I don't own either.**

**Just to clear up for anyone who is confused (I got a review asking about it so I'll just explain here), the principal is Yami's mother, as said in the prologue, but there's been a bit of family drama as will be explained a little later on in this chapter when you see this # at the beginning of the paragraph. Hope this clears it up. **

**Anyway, Yami's going to see the crime in this chapter, so there's gonna be a time-skip. We'll also have some interaction between Yami and his mum.**

**Um, warnings, hmm. Different writing style, sorta. I'm gonna keep trying different things until I feel comfortable with it. Minor swearing and fantasised mature situations. *****

**I've done my research, though, nothing **_**that**_** bad... I think.**

Yami's POV

I stretched my arms up and yawned. The start of the year was always boring, especially for me. I got away from my dad – Aknamkanon Sennen, owner of Sennen Industries – but had to deal with the cheer squad, lousy teachers and my mother. My friends made it better, though. Bakura and Marik on a sugar high are always amusing. As is Bakura and Marik on a blood high. It's a weird fetish...

Tea drew me out of my thoughts via the argument we are currently having, and have been since she phoned me a few days ago. *sigh*

"Why didn't you call me?" she demands. I didn't contact her during the holidays at my dad's place; I was too distracted by keeping him off my back about taking over the business when I graduate. That, and MSN – Tea's ultimate form of communication – bugs me to no end.

"Didn't know I was supposed to." I shrugged off her comment.

"Well, you _were_. My mother's boyfriend is more constant than you." She said. _Tea, your mother is a whore. He's a client. Get it through your head._

"What's happening?" Mai, a blonde new girl, asked. She'd been hanging out with us for a few days, since she'd arrived on campus early. In that time, Marik and Bakura had yapped about their mini 'look-a-likes' and bothered me to no end about my own. Mai didn't seem to care about their general strangeness, though. She was pretty cool, level headed and un-Tea-like. That and she wasn't too hard to look at.

"Tea's upset because Yami didn't talk to her every second of the holidays." Bakura answered her, sipping his can of coke. Most of my friends were set up around my dorm room – Bakura and Marik sprawled across the double bed, Seto parked in an arm chair, Vivian and Rebecca giggling aimlessly at a sit-com on the average-sized TV and Mai seated on the floor by the couch Tea and I are on. Ushio, Hugh and Jacob are no-where to be found; probably sniffing up some crack behind the storage sheds. **(A/N: I've got no idea how one would say that, so let's just go with it)**

"I only wanted three calls a day, is that so bad?" Tea waved her arms furiously at him, and I had a hard time not laughing.

Bakura blew his bangs out of his eyes, "Yes." He replied plainly.

"Anyway," Mai broke the sudden silence, "I haven't seen all the grounds yet, what's a girl gotta do to get a tour around here?"

"Very well, then. ONWARDS!" Marik declared as he got up from the bed and strode towards the door with his finger held victoriously in the air.

"Freak." Seto muttered as he too got up, taking long, gliding steps after our insane friend.

Me, Bakura, Vivian, Rebecca and Mai got up and headed after them, Tea following reluctantly behind.

We showed Mai around the campus, from the gym to the library. At the back of the gym, we met up with Ushio. I wondered what he was doing there, but didn't question it. Jacob and Hugh caught up with us a bit later, looking every bit as stoned as they probably were. Eventually we took Mai across the oval to show her where not to go if she wanted to avoid the commoners. Tea's words, not mine. I don't see the difference. I think our little group of doppelgangers staying there. Well, Bakura, Marik and I do. Seto has his own counterpart, though not identical.

A questioning voice carried across the oval from behind us. "Mai?"

Said girl whipped around and made eye contact with whoever spoke. Tea, Vivian and Rebecca, who were chattering insistently, piled up behind her. _Haha, serves you right._

"Yugi? Cousin Yugi?" she asked. I quickly scanned the area for who she was looking at. A few yards away from us were our band of look-a-likes. Ryou Bakura – same last name as our own Bakura Akefia – and Malik Ishtar – identical to Marik without the mad spikes – were both easily recognisable. Joey Wheeler, the Brooklyn blonde, and Malik stood half in front of the girlish Ryou in a protective stance.

The last was different. He was still familiar, but he looked different from the last time I saw him. Even when he was awkward and gangly – which was a feat in itself, considering his height – he managed to pull off the cute thing. He'd grown past that now.

"Hey!" he called, answering Mai's earlier assumption and breaking me from my musings. His voice didn't squeak or crack now, "What are you doing here?"

Mai sprinted towards them, knocking the girls behind her for six – and a few poor randoms on her way. When she reached him, she flung her arms around him and snuggled into his tiny shoulder, hunched over so her knees were bent. Was he her friend? Boyfriend? _Why do I care?_ An odd feeling went through my chest then, a kind of weight and my brow lowered into a confused frown. _Is this... jealousy?_

He stood there with his arms pinned to his sides as Mai finally straightened herself out. **(A/N: my friend would say 'ERECT YOURSELF!' but I don't think that would work here...)** She explained something to him, presumably why she was at the boarding school, and he answered. They said a few more things before he stood as tall as he could to peak over Mai's shoulder at us. Seto had started leading the rest of us forward; his usual expression of bored distaste adorned him. The girls were glaring, probably upset about having to 'breathe the same air as them'. Vivian and smuggled booze could be a comedic sight. She'd gone on a rant about 'commoners'. Bakura and Marik were looking rather lost at what to do, but were following anyway – they'd been too long without an R rated horror film, so they were probably just wanting something to amuse them for the next five minutes. Mai twisted her back at an askew angle to see us without releasing her prize.

Tea glared at Mai, Vivian glared at Mai, Rebecca glared because her role models were glaring, Seto glared at Joey, Marik and Bakura glared because they just do that to everyone, I thought Ushio's face was born with a glare, Jacob and Hugh were glaring because of the pounding headaches that were probably eating at their skulls. I simply glared because everyone else was glaring.

And that Mai still hadn't released Yugi.

For once, I realised, I could actually move to full capacity. Just after this realisation, I figured out that it was because Tea was on the other side of everyone to me instead of hanging off my arm. _Probably her way of saying she's still mad at me._

"Mai, what are you doing with _him_?" Tea snarled. Seemed her voice changed too. It sounded like a pig with the flu was puking gravel into a metal bucket.

"I'm giving my relative a hug. What does it look like?" Mai turned fully to face us, her hand behind her back, presumably on Yugi's. Now that I could look closely, they did seem a little alike. From what I'd gathered, they shared a sense of humour and sarcasm. If Yugi's bangs were a bit longer, they would be just the same shape and colour as Mai's. Their eyes were matching, too, but Mai's were darker violet than Yugi's bright amethyst. _Since when did I pay so much attention to his eyes?_

Vivian narrowed her eyes even more and hissed, "You're related to _that?_"

"Yes, if you have a problem with that, you can take it up with Kentucky Moonshine." Mai finally released her grip on Yugi and crossed her arms over her impressive chest. _Can she do that? I hope not._ I may not have had many fears, but horses were one of them. I mean, they're so _big_. With the teeth and the snorting and the _hooves_, oh, the hooves are the worst. I couldn't even watch the races of TV. The hooves pounding, sending grass and dirt flying, the noise, the tremors... *shudder* **(A/N: this is my mum's fear, especially the hooves.)**

"No, no, that's fine." I quickly denied.

"Whatever, hun." Mai scoffed and she twisted back to face Yugi. "Are these guys teasing you?"

"Don't do this, Mai, please. I can look after myself. Just go." Yugi pleaded with her. His eyes silently begged for her to listen to him.

Rebecca interrupted before the blonde could answer. "Fine, if you want to waste your time with _them_, we're leaving." She whirled around and whipped Tea in the nose and eyes with her ponytail. Tea squawked indignantly but trailed after her, everyone else doing the same. I, however, stayed.

"Ignore 'em." I said to the group. Ryou had come out of hiding, and Malik and Joey relaxed somewhat. "They're just stubborn."

"Oh, like you aren't?" Yugi asked me with a snarl, "You were convinced I was a ten-year-old until you checked my record – and you didn't even believe _that_ until you and your friends crashed my birthday!"

I remember that. All I saw was a cute-still-hadn't-reached-puberty-yet kid. I honestly thought he was the English teacher's kid. Nine-year-old kid. He was in most of my classes so I took a peak at his records – through my mother's computer without her permission, of course – and found that he actually _was_ a student. Bakura and Marik refused to believe it, so they took to stalking him, dragging me along for the ride. During first year, Tea had been a friend of Yugi's. She, Joey, Ryou and Malik planned a surprise party for Yugi under the tree on the oval. We honestly didn't mean for it to go that far, but we... well, completely trashed it. I'd never seen Yugi celebrate anything publically since then. In fact, I hardly saw him outside class. I'd give my TV to know where he always disappeared to.

I eyed Yugi critically. I hadn't payed much attention to his looks before now, but he's actually... pretty cute. Like, _really_ cute. The kind of cute fourteen-year-old girls are supposed to call older guys they like. _Bad, Yami, bad! You will _not_ turn into a crushing mess!_

With that thought in mind, I started to back away, keeping my eyes trained on Yugi's harsh ones. I muttered a 'see you' and left towards my mother's office. If I wanted to get over this, I'd have to figure out what it was about him that brought it on.

I avoided anyone I knew directly as I made my way up through the building to the principal's office. When I reached the door marked Mrs Williamson, I tugged the handle and let myself in.

**#** Mum was sitting behind her desk, going through manila folders in front of her, probably files for the new students. Yes, my mother was the principal. The fancy gold plate on her desk that said _Principal Anika Williamson_ proved that. Not what you'd expect with my track record, right? I cut class, I blew off homework, I disobeyed teachers and I was the principal's son. I looked more like her than I did my father, Aknamkanon. He had grey eyes, greying black hair and a tan, since he was born in Egypt. The only things I inherited from him were my face shape and narrowed eyes. My mother, however, had golden-red hair that separated itself into blonde and crimson – my bangs and tips. She, like me, had fiery red eyes. The only people who knew about my relation to her were my friends. Would you want everyone in your entire school to know you were a mama's boy? I didn't.

She met my father at a party he held for the promotion of Sennen Industries. She came with her father, who was an important share-holder. They had a few drinks and nine months later, they had me. They lasted as a couple with me for about three months. Mum tried to get at least half-time custody of me, but dad won that court battle. She could only see me once a month. When I found out what happened – I was about six at the time – I resented my father. I turned into a real brat. But when mum visited, I would run around her legs and sit in her lap until they had to pry me away from her. With a crow bar. _That_ was always an interesting experience...

Anyway, when I was eight, she married a nice man called John Williamson. He was tall and had kind brown eyes, was a teacher at this school and he gave me things. Magazines, bendy rulers, sketch books, lollipops and texta sets. Actually, he still does. When I turned fourteen, I immediately wanted to come to Domino so I could be with mum and my step-dad. I got into so many fights with father over it, he wanted me to either be home schooled or go to the same private all boys school he went to.

After much discussion (and many broken vases) he agreed to send me here. That way, I was with mum during school time and father in the holidays.

Mum glanced up and saw me at the door. "Hey, baby." She greeted, "What're you doing?"

"Nothing much." I walked around the back of her chair and leaned my head on her shoulder. If I was going to ask about Yugi's file, it would have to be now, "Hey, mum, can I see a file? There's this person, and I really-really-really want to know at least a little about them before I talk to them..."

"Oh, have you finally broken up with that Tea girl? She was never any good for you." Mum stated. She'd never liked Tea, and was always trying to sneak a picture of someone into my bag through John. Devious, they were, devious. That, and mum was convinced I was gay. Just because I'd never shown an active interest in many of the girls who threw themselves at me didn't mean I was gay. Neither did the fact that I wore leather. Or a collar.

"Well, not exactly, but I'm really thinking about it. So, can you help me?" I asked.

She patted my head and rested her elbows on the desk. I perched on the chest of drawers beside it, "I don't know... a picture and name I can get away with, but someone's personal information–"

"I'll break up with Tea today if you do this for me." I interrupted her.

"Why didn't you say so?" she chirped and booted up the computer, opening some search engine thingy that finds student files if you type in their name instead of having to go through them in year and alphabetical order, "What's this person's name?"

"Yugi Mutou." I said immediately. I'd only seen his file once before, so I didn't remember much.

She typed it in and hummed as the computer searched. "Yugi," she mused, "means 'game', doesn't it?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah, it does." I answered just as a window popped up on the screen. Mum opened it and a picture of Yugi with his info beside it appeared.

"There you go." Mum got up to leave me with the chair. "I'm going to head to the staff room. Shut it down when you're done." She gathered her folders and made towards the door. Just before she closed it, she peeked her head back in and said, "He's cute. I approve."

I blushed furiously. "_Muuum!_" I whined, the tips of my ears burning. She ducked out with a laugh that echoed down the hall.

I scanned over the screen, my blush finally subsiding.

_Name: Yugi Mutou_

_Age: 17_

_Birthday: 4__th__ June_

_Height: 5"_

_Grade: 11_

_Stays in the slums, taken thirteen days off his entire time here, straight A's..._ I trailed off at that thought. An image of Yugi in the girl's uniform with reading glasses popped into my head. Damn, Marik and Bakura are rubbing off on me, stupid perverts.

_Fantasy-Yugi was stretching up, trying to reach a book on the top shelf of the library stocks. The skirt was riding higher and higher on his thighs until it barely covered anything at all. He made a tiny jump, his 1 inch heels clacked back to the ground as he landed. Knee-high socks showed a tantalising flash of pale skin before the short skirt fell._

_He carried the book to a pile of pillows and beanbags my mind came up with for him to sit on. He perched on the mountain of softness with his feet kicked up onto a stack of books he'd obviously read. He pushed his glasses further up his button nose and let his big eyes scan the page. He licked his thumb with a flash of pink and flipped to the next page. He chewed his knuckle alluringly and leaned forward a bit. His legs parted a little so he could lean his book on them. _

_A Fantasy-Me came out of nowhere and waltzed up behind Fantasy-Yugi. He wrapped his arms around Fantasy-Yugi's thin waist and kissed his neck. Fantasy-Yugi tilted his head to give Fantasy-Me more room. Fantasy-Me pulled Fantasy-Yugi into his lap and kissed him soundly on the mouth. With a flick of his tongue and a roll of his hips, Fantasy-Me had Fantasy-Yugi pinned under him on the beanbags. _

_Trapped under Fantasy-Me, Fantasy-Yugi moaned and wrapped his arms around Fantasy-Me's neck. Fantasy-Me, lucky bastard, was cradled between Fantasy-Yugi's thighs. I'm jealous of myself, is that odd? Who cares? Fantasy-Yugi kicked his leg over Fantasy-Me's waist and pulled him closer. _Wow_, can you say turn-on?_

_Fantasy-Yugi had obviously had enough of being on the bottom, as he twisted his head away from Fantasy-Me, who's tongue dragged along Fantasy-Yugi's cheek at the sudden movement, leaving a shining trail of saliva. Fantasy-Yugi pushed Fantasy-Me by the shoulders until he was pressed to the pillows, Fantasy-Yugi straddling his hips. Their lips pressed together again, though it was clear that Fantasy-Me was the dominant one, despite his position. He ran his hands up and down Fantasy-Yugi's spine, caressed his sides and brushed over his chest. Fantasy-Yugi moaned again, arching his back into the ghosted touches. Fantasy-Me's hands wandered down to Fantasy-Yugi's legs, before retreating back up. His fingers brushed just under the hem of the skirt–_

"Damn!" I cursed out loud. A babbling group of teachers passed the closed door and, though I knew it was closed, I froze. I didn't need them walking on me with my 'problem'.

Their silhouettes filtered through the semi-transparent window, and I recognised the voices of the physics teacher, Ms Riyan (she remains unmarried as no man – or woman – can stand her nasal, chipmunk-style voice or know-it-all attitude), Mrs Cooper (she taught second-year literacy and homeroom. She was an over-controlling basket-case with an inferiority complex) and Mrs Locheart (code name: the Komodo dragon. She resided in the library, mostly, that was her cave. She tried to talk cool, but it came out like a really bad movie based on gangs in the 1940s. She was constantly harping about her 'little baby Peter' but never mentioned a husband. She taught Humanities – a depressing and confusing mixture of English, SOSE and Geography with a hint of business thrown in. It was a first-year core subject.)

The thought of the three women usually calmed any 'problem', but I supposed Yugi was special. Silently and quickly as I could, I clicked the 'print' option at the top-right hand corner of the screen. The printer – which was on a shelf next to my feet where the desk rested on the floor – buzzed quietly, sucking paper in slowly as it inked the page.

_Come on, come on..._ I mentally willed the machine to go faster. I needed to get back to my room _now_! My 'problem' obviously wasn't going to leave on its own. Of course, I could leave as soon as the picture was out, stuff the rest of the file, but then I would know less about Yugi. Oh, decisions, decisions...

The printer spat out the fully printed paper, and I quickly folded it – taking care not to crease the image – and tucked it safely away in my pocket. I waited impatiently for the three educators to move on before I slipped back into the hall way. I turned and made a run for it towards the stairs–

And ran smack into John. I stumbled back but regained my footing. John steadied himself and looked at me questioningly. "You alright, buddy?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, but I gotta get going." I shuffled past him, mindful to not let him see me walking oddly. That would've been embarrassing to explain, despite him knowing who I hang out with. I side-stepped passed him and was already heading down the stairs when he called me back.

"You dropped this." He handed me back the half-page Yugi picture with a smirk that could rival mine.

"Uh, yeah, thanks." I snatched it back, clutching it to my chest. John grinned at me again, his brown eyes sparked with mischief. It was the same look I'd seen on mum whenever I had an argument with Tea and she was just bursting to say 'I told you so'.

"He's a lot better than that Tea girl. Have fun!" he jogged away before I could retort. _Shit, he knows me too well._

I decided to ignore his suggestive comment and instead headed down the stairs again, paper safely returned to my pocket.

I hurried down the hall on the ground floor, practically sprinting for the door. I was stopped, however, by a pair of familiar, annoying voices behind me.

"Hey, Yami! Wait up!"

Oh, _great_...

When I finally emerged from my room, it was evening and already getting dark. I had promised mum I'd break up with Tea today if she gave me Yugi's file (THANK YOU MUM!) so I intended to keep it. All I had to do was find the girl. If I were a teenage cheerleader, where would I be? Anywhere directly related to education is out... the gym? No, hardly anyone ever went there. No one would be there to watch her. Maybe the oval? That sounded about right. There were lots of people to pay attention to her. If she wasn't there, she'd be at the cafeteria. No teachers and more people.

I decided to try the oval first. I could check the cafeteria on my way back if she wasn't there. I marched across the campus, purposefully glaring at anyone in my way. A few of my female followers gathered into a swarm and hovered after me, buzzing with gossip like a bee hive. Didn't they have lives of their own? Apparently not.

I walked along the grey cement path around the corner of a brick building, which lead to the grassy field. The big oak tree on the other side marked the beginning of the slums, a group of rickety buildings that housed the poorer students. Right in the middle of the sea of green was a flock of students, gathered around the cheer squad. All done up in their blue uniforms consisting of a short skirt, white mid-rift top with 'DOMINO' scrawled across the front and white and blue pom-poms they chatted, a few of them were stretching for either warm up or down. My fangirls stopped when I did as I scanned the girls for one Tea Gardner. There she was, right smack in the middle where everybody could see her. She'd yanked her hair up into stereotypical twin bunches on either side of her head.

I headed over. The grass crunched silently under my feet, but was flattened by the steps of the girls following me. The group of people around the squad made a clear path for me, either terrified of my fierce look or amazed that I was actually looking at them.

"Yami-kins!" Tea 'greeted' me by flinging herself around my shoulders. Her hands clasped over my chest and she put her chin on my shoulder from behind, "You're just in time for practise. I knew you'd come, even if we had that fight. Why don't we forget it ever happened and–" she babbled on until I interrupted her with a simple 'it's over'.

"W-what?" she detangled herself from me and stood in front of me. Her eyes were wide and her face pale. The crowd around us went deadly silent. "You-you can't mean that..."

"I can and I do." I said in a monotone voice that sounded eerily like Seto's, "I'll say it again if you don't understand; It's. Over."

She stood there and gurgled, "B-b-b-b-but... I-you-and – we just-were supposed to – you were meant be wi-with me f-forever!"

"That was never going to happen, Tea." I answered coldly. I didn't remember what I'd ever seen in her. Sure, she was pretty enough, but she had nothing else. Yugi, on the other hand, was intelligent, polite, kind, hard-working... I _may_ have read his file a few too many times.

Someone in the crowd fainted. Poor, random soul. Tea payed them no mind, she just continued to stand there and sway drunkenly. Her eyes eventually narrowed at me. "It's that Mai girl isn't it?" she demanded, curling her clawed hands into fists, "She stole you away from me."

I blinked at her, "Mai has nothing to do with this. Someone else has caught my interest, yes, but it isn't her." That was true. It wasn't Mai, it was Mai's cute little cousin. As it turned out, me finding out about him didn't cure me of my crush, it intensified it. So much so, that I couldn't even think of Tea without gagging. _Euch_. Tea herself just stared, stared, stared and stared some more. Was she incapable of such a simple brain function as comprehension? She gaped like a fish for a minute – I wasn't complaining, that was probably an improvement – then burst into tears. She screamed at me, the bystanders, and the other girls on the squad, the grass, the tree, and her pom poms and clawed at her hair. Clumps were flying, literally. She wasn't even screaming words, just screaming. She whirled around to face me directly, her nostrils flared like an angry bull, her eyes were red, her face flushed and blotchy, stained with tears. _Now _that_ is something I could've gone the rest of my life without seeing._ Bald patches had formed on the sides of her head where she tore at.

And people found her _attractive_?

She raised her arm and pointed at me. "You!" she hissed. Before I could react, she had slapped me across the face. My head snapped right and my cheek stung. "I was _perfect_ for you!" she ranted, "I'm head cheerleader, I'm beautiful, what more do you want!" I wanted much more. I wanted someone who would care about me just for being me, warts and all. I may be stubborn, over-protective, _slightly_ obsessive and jealous, but my perfect one would accept that.

"I want someone who actually thinks about how I might feel." I said simply so she could comprehend me.

"But I–!"

"No, no you don't." I already knew what she was going to say; _but I do care about your feelings! I love you! Don't leave me!_ Tch, yeah, right. She cared about her make-up, that's about as far as her emotions went. I told her so once a while ago, and she ignored me for three days. Can't say I was too upset about it, either.

Without another word, I turned and stalked away, leaving her – and the crowd – speechless. Even my fangirls were frozen. I was on my merry way back to my dorms when I ran into Mai, who was probably heading back from wherever Yugi stays. I was just passing the drama room when she caught up to me. She greeted me with a quiet 'hey', but I could tell she was still upset at me with how my friends treated her cousin – and my new crush.

I walked silently beside her; we were going to the same place anyway. I kept my head down, silently hoping she wouldn't notice the red mark on my face. Apparently, I had bad luck.

"What is that?" she questioned, coming to a halt. She grabbed my chin and forced me onto my toes so she could look me in the eye. Damn my shortness. "Did Tea hit you?"

"Yeah." I admitted weakly. Mai scowled at the glowing mark as if it had personally offended her, "I broke up with her and she didn't take it well." I explained.

"Good for you, almost." she released my face and strutted forward. I trailed after her, avoiding thoughts and ignoring the persistent sting. We arrived at Mai's dorm first, which was a double storey building painted light blue. It housed two people; one upstairs an one down. Mai shared with a blue-haired girl named Miho, so Mai bid me a grunted 'goodnight' and went in, slamming the door behind her. I could hear her shoes tapping on the staircase as she went to the upstairs apartment. I sighed, shook my head and continued on the now gravel path to the house-like buildings that were the most expensive in the school. One of the terms on which father agreed to my coming here; I had to have the best.

I stumbled through the door, thankful that the door had an automatic lock and I remembered my keys. I forgot about brushing my teeth or showering, I just flopped into the bed.

I rolled onto my side and wrestled my jacket and shoes off. Everything else could wait until morning.

**!~!~!~!~TIME SKIP~!~!~!~!**

It had been several months, and it was nearing the holidays. I had taken to Yugi-watching as of late, and I noticed several things I'd never noticed before. For instance, Yugi always carried around a black messenger-bag with red dice painted on. Pinned to the front were many sarcastic badges that said things like; _Sarcasm Society: like we need your support, I see dumb people, runs with scissors, they can send me to uni but they can't make me think, rock is dead; long live paper and scissors, Chaos Panic Disorder; my work here is done, BOW TIES ARE AWESOME_ and one with really small print that said _you are too close_. I'd never once seen him without that bag somewhere within reach. He could pull everything out of that bag! Sunglasses, poppers, a collar, several manga, a first-aid kit and about three portable gaming-devices have made my list so far.

Tea had also taken to Yami-watching. I could swear she was practically a stalker. She followed me everywhere she could, even some places she couldn't – I will never go to the bathroom without making sure the window is shut and locked again. She'd also dated about every straight guy on campus trying to make me jealous. The only thing I was jealous of was how close Yugi was to Joey. They would hug and share food and drinks with each other - as did everyone in the group when they bought a big box of pineapple juice with all the 'coinage', as they called it, they could scrounge up from their pockets - but they were the closest. **(A/N: my friends are like this; they practically live in each other's laps)**

Mai had taken up hanging out with the group. She would lay on Yugi as he leaned on Joey who leaned against their tree, while Ryou and Malik leaned against each other with their legs all tangled in the middle of their circle. They would share stories and pass around the juice - Malik had jokingly called himself a Juicism God once. He created a whole theory about how the first juice box exploded and created the earth and how water was just purified juice. He came up with the three deities; Blaggesh (black currant), Trogezza (tropical punch) and Pine-ale (pineapple). I know because I had ditched class that day to climb the tree and hide in the leafy branches before the friends got there for lunch. It was an amusing conversation... and I'm not a _complete_ stalker...

Someone smacked me over the head. "Yami!" Bakura hissed at me, "Are you even paying attention?" We'd set up a small, crooked circle in my room, ordering from me, Bakura to my right, Marik next to him and Seto between him and me. The girls had long-ago ditched us, and Ushio, Hugh and Jacob had blindly stumbled out a while ago, not caring for our 'childish' game of Truth or Dare.

"I am, I am." I replied lazily, "Marik just dared you to moon out the library window at lunch tomorrow. I heard you."

"Ok then." Marik seemed pleased with his idea. "Bakura, your turn."

Bakura grinned impishly at me. "Yami, Truth or Dare?"

"Dare." I decided confidently, "I'm not a wuss." I glanced over at Seto, who'd been playing it safe with Truth the whole game. He huffed and crossed his arms. His answer to the last question he got was that when he got his Blue-Eyes White Dragon card, he was hoping for a Dark Magician. Since Seto is one of the best Duel Monster players, you'd have thought he wanted only the biggest and the best but no. He wanted my favourite card.

"Ok, I dare you to... hmm, go into the gym basement, tonight." Bakura finally issued his challenge, after a quick, whispered discussion with Marik.

"Alright," I grunted, standing up, "You guys coming?"

"Meh," Seto waved his arm lazily before he, too, got to his feet, "We'll walk there with you, just to make sure you do it and you don't chicken out."

"Psh, like I'm gonna do that."I scoffed at him. I ushered everyone out the door and grabbed my keys, locking the door behind me. We snuck across campus, giggling like grade-schoolers on camp. We were going against the curfew, so we stuck off the path, in case we ran across the janitor or a paranoid teacher. When we arrived at the darkened gym, it was at least half-past midnight. Most of the dorm lights were out by now, some still on in the rooms where chatter floated out the windows of the night-owls.

With Marik and Bakura's superior thievery skills and Seto's all-out stubbornness (Bakura and Marik picked the lock on the door, but it wouldn't budge. Seto, being the stubborn prick he is, refused to leave until he forced the door open with cricket bats... I still don't quite know how he accomplished that) we finally got in. Well, I did. Since it was my dare, they wouldn't follow me. I crept down the chipped concrete stairwell, trying to silence the sound of my steps. The place was creepy enough; I didn't need my feet echoing off the walls to complete the horror movie image.

I stood quietly at the bottom of the stairs and looked around. Everything seemed normal... but what was that? Something... A shadow, perhaps? It sifted through a crack in a door I never knew existed. As I slunk closer, I could see a sliver of light at the bottom. Faint, muffled voices teased just out of my hearing range, _"... almost time... close...Dartz... Orichalcos..."_

... What?

As I crept along, I came across an office-type space, not quite a room, more like an area to the side of the hall they decided to put a desk in. A pile of paper-stuffed manila folders sat atop the mahogany, seemingly innocent. I scooped a few folders up and leafed through them. My panic level steadily increased as I saw more and more gold 'terminated' stamps tattooed over people's faces, and a few eerie green 'recruited' stamps. I tucked one into the inside of my jacket and fastened it – no point in taking the stuff if I was going to drop it. The hall extended before me, the low chants of whoever was beyond it floated back to me.

I slithered forward, keeping my head down, for whatever reason; I thought it would make me more invisible. Stupid thought, I knew it was, but what would you've done, other than make yourself a smaller target? I grabbed the handle and inched the door open – obviously, whoever was in there, didn't think anyone would be out and about this late, or even stick out long enough to get under the gym. It swung slowly open, thankfully silent. I walked through cautiously, keeping my eyes peeled for anything that could hurt me. I followed the gradually increasing noise and came to what looked like a court room. There were people in strange robes filling the benches of the raised sides and a shadowy figure at the centre of the far side. A man in a shredded suit lay on his stomach in the middle of the floor, bleeding, battered and bruised, but no one moved to help him. The coppery smell hung heavy in the air, emanating from the cerise pool surrounding him. He rolled onto his side, soaking his torn-to-ribbons shirt in even more of the bright red liquid, giving me a clear view of his black and blue face. _Is that... no, it couldn't be..._ A tall man stood by his prone figure, eyeing him off nastily.

Ever since a few weeks ago, people in high places had been disappearing. If they were ever found again, they were either completely fine, if questionable, or they were decapitated, dismembered and disembowelled. The man on the floor before, what I assumed was, the spectators had been on the news about a week ago under 'missing persons'. _Another government figure gone missing_, the article in the paper said. Was this where they all ended up?

"P-please, sir... I'll give you anything–!" The man tried to plead, but he was immediately silenced by the tall, muscled blonde next to him, who had been silent until now.

"You will not speak to Master Dartz until you agree to his terms for your freedom!" he snapped, smacking the man clean over the head.

I was frozen with fear. I held my breath, trying not to be noticed where I hid in the shadow of the doorway. The 'Master Dartz', if that was even his name, raised a pale hand in a commanding way. "Silence, Raphael," hissed, almost soothingly, "let the man talk; we'll see what he has to say."

The man on the floor shivered and trembled, stuttering out some story about how he had a family to take care of and bills to pay. "I've got too much in my life to join your cult!"He finished lamely.

"Hmm. Not much, then." was all Dartz said. He finally got up and stepped into the light, sporting aqua-green hair to his waist, tied into a pony tail half-way down his back. He was wearing a robe, like the others, but it was a bit more... extravagant. His eyes were two colours – one green, the other a shade of gold. A smirk adorned his face and made me shudder. A small, glowing green rock hung from his neck by a thin gold chain. It glowed brighter and literally _pulled_ on the chain, as if trying to escape – or attack.

Dartz cackled darkly as the man screamed and fell limp. He 'thumped' to the floor on his stomach, apparently dead. I gasped and stumbled back, blindly searching for the door with my hand. I knew I was drawing attention to myself, but I couldn't think clearly. I couldn't do anything! It felt like waking up from a horrible night-mare, the ones when you freeze up and you can't move, you can't breathe and you can't think. My eyes watered as I finally urged my trembling legs to carry me away as fast as they could go. I had stumbled half-way up the stairs before I heard anyone coming after me. I risked a glance back over my shoulder – the man dubbed Raphael was thundering after me, yelling in his gravelly voice to 'get back here, kid!' I focussed my attention forward again, almost falling up the stairs in my haste to get away.

My feet slammed up the steps two at a time as I tried desperately to get out before they caught me – there was a red-head and a brunette after me now, as well as the blonde Raphael **(A/N: guess who?)**. I shoved open the door, pushing against its weight with all my might. I sprinted across the cement floor of the gym – obviously my friends had retreated back to the security of my room. _Oh, how I wish I was there now..._ My feet pounded harshly on the grass as I finally scampered across the oval, sending dirt flying up behind me in my hurry. Past the cafeteria and the class rooms, I finally got to the dorm blocks.

I wheezed as I stumbled into my room, glad that the guys chasing me had given up at the second apartment-house. I ignored the complaints and surprised yells of my friends – who _had_ left me there and come back – and fell to my knees. Childishly, I dragged myself under my bed, trying to hide from the world. I sobbed quietly to myself, the coppery smell of blood hovering in my nose and head. I heard the door opening, but I barely remembered slamming it closed behind me. Someone pulled the blanket away from the side of my hiding place, and I heard Seto's oddly worried voice asking me what happened.

I sniffed and shuffled out, grabbing a pillow off the top of the bed and hugging it to my chest while I sat on the floor. Bakura and Marik came in, but I didn't look at anything but my knees. Seto rubbed my shoulders gently, but I could tell he was getting frustrated by my silence. Bakura sat on my other side and Marik sat in front of me. I took a shuddery breath and let it out, trying to calm my thundering heart beat down to a more normal, less painful pace.

I gulped before speaking "I-I-I-"well, stuttering, out my answer to their curious gazes, "Th-there wa-was this thing – u-under the gym–"

"We could guess that, genius," Seto rolled his eyes at me. _I guess he's never emotional for too long._

I moaned at him, "No, no, i-its bad. Th-there wazz th-this guy a-a-and he-he k-k-k-" I couldn't finish. **(A/N: You know how when you're crying you sound like you have a cold? That's what I'm trying to get)** What I really wanted was for this all to be a horrible, horrible dream and for the memory of all the blood to be gone forever. Seto seemed to realise my panic, and he stood, pulling out his sleek touch-screen phone/PDA/GPS/ mp4 player. He tapped and dragged his finger across it before holding it to his ear. "Aunt Anika? Yeah, it's me... Yami's having some kind of break-down... at his room... Thank you, bye." He tucked it back into his pocket and spoke again. "Yami, your mother is on her way."

"Th-Thank you, Seto," I snuffled some more, simply wallowing in my shock and misery. Bakura and Marik quietly pestered me for a bit, before they gave up and let me be silent. _What if they caught me? Would I end up like him, or would they 'recruit' me? What would they make me do if they did? What is the Orichalcos anyway?_

Amidst my thoughts, my mother had arrived. I panicked slightly when her arms wrapped around my shoulders but calmed when I saw it was her. She gently soothed me, stroking my hair until I stopped blubbering enough to talk like a human. She coaxed me into telling her what happened, gently probing for details. I stuttered out what happened as best I could, thrusting the folder which was still tucked into my jacket into her hands. Her eyes widened and she gasped. She flipped through the 'terminated' and 'recruited' papers then dropped the documents. She gave me another hug, apologising quietly to me that I had to see that. Bakura and Marik were oddly quiet, but I couldn't tell if they were horrified or jealous that I got to see so much blood and they didn't. Mum helped me stand up then sat me gingerly on the bed, wrapping my blanket around my shoulders.

She smiled solemnly at me, "I'm going to call John, and then I'll have to call your father."

"N-nooo," I whined; I didn't want to see father, he'd reprimand me for being so distraught when I wasn't even hurt. He would never understand why I was so upset. Mum would sympathise with me – father would give me a disappointed scowl and tell me to wash my face and get over it.

When mum stood to pull out her phone, I curled into myself again, pulling the blanket over my head like a cloak. Bakura, Marik and Seto perched awkwardly at the end of the bed. I'd never behaved this way in front of them for any reason, not even when I saw that R rated horror film when I was thirteen (Marik found it, Bakura smuggled it in). I heard one-sided yelling from the other room – mum had left to make the calls. Obviously, she'd phoned father. When she came back in, she gave a tight-lipped smile that she only did when she was trying to avoid people knowing how angry she was, either with them or the situation. "Your dad's coming as soon as he can. He'll probably be here tomorrow at noon."

_Well, that explains why she's so upset. _There were only ever awkward silences or extreme yelling matches whenever the two were in the same room. It sometimes got so bad that as soon as mum showed up at the mansion, father would leave for his office until she was gone.

Mum sat down next to me again and sighed, rubbing her eyes. It was almost two o'clock in the morning, she was probably tired. I rested my head on her shoulder, draping half the blanket over her.

We spent the rest of the night huddled up on the bed, just sitting. One of the others would occasionally say something, but I remained silent, simply collecting my thoughts. What would happen to me now? I had no life outside this school, what would I do if I had to leave? I'd probably be put into witness protection in the middle of nowhere or some other country – maybe both – with some family and some secret agent/protector looking over my shoulder 24/7. Bakura and Marik fell asleep leaned against the wall and each other. They looked oddly innocent in slumber, eyes closed and faces calm with no trace of the malice on their features that there usually was.

Seto, being the emotionless alien cyborg that he is, stayed up all night, staring intently out the window for anything that might catch his interest.

When I finally did fall asleep, it was restless and fitful, overflowing with nightmares.

**Hmm... I think I'll go back to how I wrote Yugi's chapter, unless you guys like this style. Normally, I don't do POVs, but I wanted to try something different with this – I write a lot in my spare time, this is just my first publish. But I do actually like how Yugi's chapter was done, for once. I'm not too fond of how this chapter was written.**

**I've got no idea what a suggestive day-dream would be like, or how one would react to seeing someone tortured to death in front of them.**

**Now, do forgive me if I got some of the details about the Orichalcos wrong – I haven't seen the whole **_**Waking the Dragons **_**series. Next chapter will definitely have Yami's father, though, and some Yugi-Yami interaction.**


	4. Chapter 4

**! I completely forgot I even had this story 'cause I was busy with a bunch of other ones.**

**Anyway... *begs for mercy* IZ SORRY THIS IS SOOOOOOOO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO LATE~!**

**Not too happy with this – hardly anything happens – but I really wanted to get something out. So, here you are.**

**Yugi's POV**

My peaceful universe is shattered by the annoying drone of my mobile phone. _Who the hell calls at this ungodly time on a weekend?_ I pick up the device and gruffly mumble a snarly 'hello?'

"_Well, Yugi-boy, it's nice to hear from you too."_ The usually flouncy voice of my god-father, Pegasus, is disappointed at my lack of enthusiasm. I haven't heard from him in a while, sure, but I don't have to be as constantly happy as he is. I doubt anyone but he could pull it off.

"No, no, it is nice to hear from you, the phone just woke me up." I try to get myself back into his good graces. Pegasus was a good friend of my grandfather's, so my parents knew him well. He's the CEO of Industrial Illusions, the company which manufactures Duel Monsters. Don't get it mixed up with Kaiba Corp, though, they only make the Duel Disk system.

"_Not to worry, not to worry. I was just wondering if you and dear old Solomon would be willing to take on a boarder at your ranch?"_ he continued on like nothing happened. When he says 'boarder', he means someone in witness protection. He funds the Domino police force, so we've had it happen a few times before. The most common was divorcees; the spouse was not happy with the divorce and turned stalker. The one on the receiving end goes into witness protection if it gets drastic until an end can be put to it.

"Well... I think so," I answered his question, "you'll have to call him, but I have no problems with it. It's the holidays anyway; I go home tomorrow. Where are you?"

"_On my way to pick you up from your room. Have your things packed when I get there! Ciao." _He hung up before I could protest. _Why does he always do this to me?_ I sigh and drag myself up out of my navy blue sheets. Insert epic fall here. After picking myself up off the floor and stumbling over to my closet, I grab pants and a shirt before shoving everything else into my suitcase. The thing is overflowing with leather, which takes up very little space when there's only one or two things, but when it's practically all you wear, it grows like the ooze from the first _My Little Pony_ movie – which I most definitely DO NOT still watch – and who knew, there may have been a bit of cotton in there somewhere!

My still-foggy brain helpfully says that the pyjamas I'm wearing need to go in that bag too, as does all the other clothing in my dresser.

Crap.

It was a valiant struggle!

I fought bravely, but I still came out with a black eye and bleeding fingers. Those zips are _dangerous_! But, I'm dressed, so that's one less thing to do. Now I only have to pack everything else I own in the next – I glance at my phone for the time – four and a bit minutes. I can do that.

I grab the other suitcase and hastily throw all my accessories, toiletries, bed sheets, pillows and my beloved light-bulb. Just as I'm stretching so much I should be declared a yoga champion to put the old, boring one back in, the door bursts open and Pegasus flounces in with a cheery smile and a black suit behind him. The man is wearing block-out sunglasses, but I've seen him before. Craig or something equally dull. I grin and run up to the white-haired man for a hug. Pegasus is just as prone to glomp people he likes as me or Malik, so this is our mutual greeting.

"You ready to go?" he asks cheerfully. I don't know how he can be constantly happy, but he is. I guess it adds a bright side to knowing him, not having to deal with grumpy moods or crocodile tears.

I shake my head, "Just gimme a sec." I dash over to the one cupboard I don't put my things in and pull out dust-covers. After dropping them over everything – bed, dresser, beanbags, book case, desk and chair – I pick up my school bag and Craig helps me with the suitcases. We get so many strange looks as I, poor-man Yugi Mutou, cross the lobby of the cheapest dorm block at Domino with a body-guard, a multi-billionaire and step into a stretch limo the same size as Seto Kaiba's. Eat _that_, bitches.

"So, are we picking up the boarder?" I ask Pegasus as we slide into the plush leather seats of the limo.

He shakes his head no and flips his hair out of his face, "No, I've sent for him to be picked up. He'll be at the station when we get there."

I nod my head and stare out the window. We're on the main road, now, the gates of Domino Boarding School behind us. The ride is long and quiet. Pegasus and I chat a little bit, just catching up on what's been happening with each other. He asks about my schoolwork and I ask about his company. Apparently, 'Kaiba-boy' doesn't like him very much. Poor Seto. Being in competition with Pegasus usually means he'll be sickeningly nice to you until you either go mentally insane or you just give him what he wants to make it stop. I get called Yugi-boy, but at least he behaves remotely human-like to me.

At last, the limo pulls up to the high-security police station in the city. I open the door before the chauffeur can and leap out onto the street, stretching my legs and cracking my back. _Ahh, that's nice._ Pegasus gets out behind me, chuckling quietly at my antics. I trot up the steps and through the automatic glass double doors, right up to the front desk. Pegasus comes up behind me and smiles at the thin reception lady. "May we see the boy under witness protection?" he asks with a charming smile.

She blinks, finally realising who he was, and nodded quickly, getting up and shuffling to a door behind the desk, motioning us to follow her. We go down a corridor and go through the last door on the left, where two officers and another person sat on lounge chairs set up around the room. The person has a blanket over their shoulders, head buried in their knees and spikes of dark hair sticking up, outlined with dark red. _Why is that so familiar?_

The brunette policeman rose to his feet and shook Pegasus's hand. "Glad you could make it, Mr Pegasus." He says seriously.

"Anytime, good sir, anytime." The white-haired man waved him off, sitting down on an available chair. The only space left to sit was on the couch next to the huddled person, so I sat down quietly and smiled a little at him, even if he couldn't see it. The other officer, a balding man with wisps of ginger hair, handed Pegasus a case folder. He flicked through it, eyes widening a little every so often, then snapped the folder shut and dropped it on the table with a SMACK. The boy beside me jumped, his head whipping up and eyes going wide at the sudden noise, and I suddenly knew who this was.

Yami Sennen was curled up on the couch, looking as if he was expecting someone to drop a bomb on him any minute. Normally I wouldn't care how bad he was feeling, but I kinda felt bad for him. He looked so... helpless. I'd never seen that terrified glaze across his eyes. Not that I spend my time gazing into his eyes, mind you, no matter how deep and beautiful they were, or how they glistened with black and violet when the sun hit them just right... ok. Maybe I _do_ stare at his eyes.

He blinks owlishly at me, scooting slightly forward on the couch towards me. His head is tilted an inch to the left in curiosity. "Yugi?" he asks quietly.

"Um... yeah, hi." I say very intelligently.

He moves forward again, getting closer to my legs which are curled up beside me. I glance to Pegasus for help – he knows how Yami and his friends treat me at school – but he is in a heavy conversation with the officers. I look back to Yami, freezing up when I see he's right next to me. I can feel his toes on my shin.

"What are _you_ doing here?" he questions. I wonder what kind of thing he might've seen to be put into witness protection, but I'm still a minor and I'm not allowed to know these things... officially, at least. Yami looks very shaken; a murder, perhaps?

I try to answer his question. "Pegasus is my godfather and he's the main funder of the Domino Police. My grandfather and I help out with witness protection."

"Oh." He nods, accepting my answer. Before I can move away, he's resting his head on my shoulder and letting out a shaky breath. His skin is really warm. I awkwardly pat his hair; what am I supposed to do now? I can comfort strangers no problem, and my friends even easier, but _Yami_? _Just breathe easy, Yugi, don't let him hear how fast your heart's beating_, I tell myself, blushing slightly when he nuzzles further into my neck with a sigh. He's practically in my lap by now.

My light flush turns into a full on flame-face and I can almost feel steam billowing out my ears as one of his arms wraps around my back to hold onto my hip. _Why are you letting him do this?_ My brain statically protested. My traitorous body tingled under his touch and almost leaned into it when – thankfully – Pegasus spoke up and said, "Alright, it's settled then. Yugi, Atem, let's get going."

Yami turns his face from the crook of my neck and grumbles out, "My name's Yami. Use it."

"Yes, yes, of course, Yami-boy." He ushers us to our feet and through the door at the back of the room. Through it are a few holding cells, detective's offices and, my personal favourite, a room for disguises and make-up. **(A/N: police stations don't actually have these as far as I know, but they do here)** They let me play around in there a lot. They even asked me if I wanted to work in the protection unit when I graduated. _Hells yeah for me!_

I already know what Pegasus is going to ask me to do, so I grab Yami's wrist and drag him into the room and push him down into the chair in front of a fully lighted mirror, whipping the blanket off him. He blinks again, staring into the mirror at his drawn, tired face. I grab some foundation and a hairbrush, knowing I'll have to do something about his complexion and tame his mass of hair into some semblance of order before I can stuff it under a wig. Hmm... This gives me an opportunity to play around with different ways to embarrass Yami...

I prod at his cheeks and eyes with pencils and brushes, yank a brush through his hair and pull it back into a high ponytail. It's just as difficult to pull back as mine. I almost feel sorry for him. But he sits in the chair quietly, watching me work through the mirror. I avoid his tired gaze and slink over to the expansive rack of wigs and hats. What to choose, what to choose... after picking out some contact lenses and a wig, a trot back over and finish up. He is _not_ going to be happy with me at all.

I cheerfully drag a very unhappy Yami down the hall and into the lounge where Pegasus and the two officers are waiting. He's digging his heels in and pulling back against my hand with all his might, but I'm not going to let him get away that easily. I push open the door and shove him in front of me. Pegasus daintily lays a hand over his mouth, trying to hold in his laughter, and the officers' cheeks puff out and they bite their lips.

"Um... that's a... good look for you." Pegasus chokes. Yami now has long, dark blue hair with silvery streaks tied into a pony tail half-way down his back, rectangular glasses perched on his nose and steely-grey contact lenses covering his crimson irises. Light blue jeans cover his legs with a dark blue button-up shirt tucked into them. He could either pull off incredibly nerdy, or incredibly cold. Or both.

Right now he's looking like a super-mega-ultra-nerd who just got their first B.

Yami grumpily sits down and crosses his arms, tosses one leg over the other and glares at the wall. I pat his shoulder with a sarcastic 'there there'. He glances at me over his shoulder and I snigger, turning away.

Someone knocks on the door and the brunette officer opens it. Mrs Williamson of all people bursts through, looking around frantically, a hulky man in a business suit behind her. He leans back on the wall and his scowl mirrors Yami's. Mrs Williamson sets her eyes on the disguised boy and slowly sits next to him, reaching out for his hand. He uses his other hand to take off the glasses, pop out the contact lenses and push the wig off his head. He sighs and rests his head on his knees. Mrs Williamson pulls his hand onto her lap and runs her fingers over it soothingly. "It'll be ok, baby," she whispers to him, "it'll be ok."

The man just grunts and says in a deep voice, "There's no need for this. Send him home and he'll be fine."

"My home is _not_ with you, father." Yami snaps icily. His head raises from where it was resting on Mrs Williamson's shoulder and his eyes scream murder. He turns to Pegasus and says, much more calmly, "We'll do whatever mum thinks would be best for me."

_Wait. Mum?_ I was confused as to why she was here before, even if she is the principal, but it makes much more sense now. They even have the same eyes. I don't know how anyone missed that, with how much people stared at Yami and how he always managed to avoid getting into trouble. But, I suppose with the way he acts no one would make the connection. Mrs Williamson runs her fingers lightly over Yami's arm trying to comfort him. He sighed and settled back into the couch, leaning back onto her shoulder again. I bite my lip in thought for a moment before speaking up and asking, "Um, Mrs Williamson?"

"Just call me Anika." She smiles warmly at me, holding out her free hand. _Calling my principal by her first name; never thought I'd see the day._ I shake her hand and sit down across from them, taking on a serious tone I hardly ever use.

I clear my throat, "Now, Anika, there are two things you could do here, one more advisable than the other. You could keep Yami here with you and have a full 24hour police watch on him, but since he witnessed what he did on school grounds he might not be so comfortable with that, or he could go into witness protection somewhere safe, probably out of the country, until the police or FBI or whoever finally solve this case. It may take anything from a few weeks to a year or so, but major criminals such as the one we think we're dealing with aren't likely to give up on either converting or disposing of an unwanted witness."

She sucks in her breath and closes her eyes in thought. The man against the wall turns his glare directly on me, and I feel my blood freeze. I suddenly want to bow and beg his forgiveness. He raises an eyebrow and says, "Are you old enough to work here?"

"Oh, I don't _work_ here, I just help out. A lot." I shrug, "Pegasus is my godfather, and he funds the Domino Police–"

"I don't care who you are, boy," he snarls, "Atem would be perfectly safe at home. There's no need for all this; I can provide for him better than that woman can."

I narrow my eyes, "Mr Sennen, I assume?" he nods gruffly, "I don't really know who you are, but if you are Yami's father, then shouldn't you be more worried about his safety than what the media sells to the public about how you treat your son? He could very well be killed without the proper protection due to your insolence! Then how would you feel? Probably nothing because you'd be too busy worrying about the scandal this would bring to your name rather than the fact that you lost your only son and a good person! Anika would need support that you obviously can't offer her. So," I take a deep breath to calm myself down; "You are going to sit down and shut up while I talk to the only sensible parent here."

He gapes at me like a fish for a minute, eyes wide from my outburst, but he obediently sits on the chair by the door. I, unfortunately, tend to rant and rave at people who annoy me or insult something I'm responsible for or, in this case, some_one_. Yami's unique eyes are trained on me, silently questioning why I defended him. Anika is almost in tears, a grateful smile on her face, and I finally notice that Pegasus and the officers have left the room.

I snap my eyes back to Mr Sennen. He's not doing any good sitting there, so I may as well... "Go find Pegasus and make yourself useful!"

He stands up stiffly, glare returning, but he stalks out the door anyway. I shut the door behind him and am promptly glomped within four-and-a-half seconds. I squeak and stumble under the suddenly added weight. I swivel my head up and am met face-first with Mrs Willia–_Anika's_ hair. Her shoulders are shaking, and I'm worried she's actually crying, but her eyes are shining when she finally releases me.

"Thank you." She says, "No one's ever stood up to him like that before."

I blink. "Um... your welcome? But you and Yami really need to decide what's going to happen." I'm going to leave so they can have some privacy to talk it over, but a hand wraps around my wrist and draws me back against a firmly built chest, twin arms instantly around my stomach. I can barely move; my arms are pinned to my sides.

"Please..." Yami whispers in my ear, breath making me shiver, "Don't leave..."

He pulls me down to the couch and curls into my side, nose brushing the spot just behind my jaw and just below my ear. Mrs W–_Anika_ sits across from us with a smile, hands held in her lap. "I think," she begins, "that Yami should go into witness protection. It would be safest for him, wouldn't it?"

"He'll be as safe as he can be at a time like this. You can still contact him through Pegasus, if you really wanted, I'm sure he could work something out, but no phone calls or texts. They're too easily traced." I tilt my head to the side, not sure if I'm doing it to get further away from Yami or to expose more of my neck to him.

Anika nods, clasping her hands under her chin and resting her elbows on her knees. I decide to give her a moment; she's not the only parent who's reacted like this. They shut down for a while to think before giving a verdict. Yami sighs and sits up on his own, twisting to look me in the eyes. One of his hands is resting lightly on my knee. He brushes it further up my thigh and back down again, takes a breath and says, "You knew I was going into witness protection anyway. Why ask what we wanted to do?"

"It's nicer." I shrug. I always thought it was polite to ask, whether the police decide what's going to happen or not. I turn away from his piercing gaze to find Anika looking intently at me, like a starved circus lion gazing at a little boy with a hotdog. I shift slightly and Yami leans against me again, cheek on my shoulder.

"Ok. So, if he's going into witness protection, where would he be going?" Anika opens her eyes and straitens up.

I nervously look at my boots, curling my toes under the leather. _I'm _so_ going to regret agreeing to this now..._ "He'd be going to America to stay at my Grandfather, Solomon Mutou's ranch with me for however long it takes until he's safe to return."

Yami raises his head so his chin is on my shoulder, lips dangerously close to my ear. "I'd be going with you?" his eyes are wide and almost hopeful as he stares at me. He looks a lot younger than he is when he pouts like that and his eyes look like _that_ and _Oh My God, Yugi! Get a grip on yourself!_

"Well, um, yes. You'd have to help out a bit around the house and whenever you go out you'd have to wear your disguise, but I live there when I'm not at school, and it's not too hard – well, the hay can be kinda heavy, and I still need to fix the fence," _CRAP I promised grandpa I'd do that before I left!_, "but it's honestly not that bad, and grandpa's great, and I'm rambling now, aren't I?" I blush and stop my verbal dribble before I hurt myself. One of my insanely bad habits is going on and on whenever I happen to be embarrassed and have to explain myself to anyone. Not proud of it, but it's true. Not like I can do anything about it.

He merely blinks, grins and chuckles at me, "That sound fine, if you're there." He settles his head more firmly on my shoulder, looking incredibly comfortable given the situation. I glance at Anika, but she's grinning with a knowing look as well. She winks and taps the side of her nose. _Ok... what does she know?_ Before I can ask, the door opens and Pegasus flounces in, a scowling Aknamkanon tromping along behind him.

"Ah, Yugi-boy!" Pegasus chirps, claiming one of the free seats, "You've taken care of everything, then?"

I nod as best I can with Yami's face so close to mine, "As much as I can do."

Aknamkanon clears his throat, stepping away from the wall, "Are you going to just let him off with how he spoke to me?" he asks snappily, crossing his arms.

Pegasus blinks, his expression completely blank, before his suddenly stands up and swings his arms up triumphantly. "Oh yes! I remember!" he clasps his hands and paces along the floor in front of me, and I know I'm in for a special lecture. _We'll see how you like _this_, Mr Sennen._ Pegasus stops directly in front of my knees and says, in a stern voice, "Now, Yugi-boy, we've gone over this many times; what have I told you about getting properly angry at someone?"

I don't answer, knowing what comes next, and a massive grin alights his face. He raises a triumphant finger and loudly declares, "You take them to court and sue them of everything they own!"

Aknamkanon's smug look falls into one of shock and horror in less than a second. His mouth opens and closes, his hands curl into fists then fall limp again, and he emits somewhat scary gurgles.

"Well then, now that that's taken care of," Pegasus points to the door, "TO THE CAR PARK!"

After gathering a few of Yami's things, getting my own from the limo out front and re-disguising Yami, we start our long drive to the airport. The news is playing softly on the radio, something about yet another Member of Parliament going missing, and Yami is again curled into my side. We said goodbye to Anika back at the station before we loaded into the undercover car we're in now, so it's just me, Yami, Pegasus in the front seat and the driver. I'm not sure if Aknamkanon's recovered yet, but he was still gurgling when we left.

I help Yami through the terminal, sit with him while we wait for our plane, and hold his hand as we board. Well, he held _my_ hand, but it may as well be the same thing. He's clinging to me as we sit, running his fingers obsessively over my knuckles. We've gotten a few odd looks, especially from the old lady across from us, but we boarded with few casualties. We did lose a coupon for a free coffee, but it will be forever remembered for its bravery.

Yami falls asleep as soon as we take off. That's probably a good thing; the movie their showing is complete crap. I pull my book out of my school bag which I use for absolutely everything anyway and settle down to read. The plane rattles and Yami's head lolls onto my shoulder. He snuffles and twists his body closer to mine. _Damn._ I hold the book further away from me than before and try to read. I've gotten through seven chapters when the flight attendants trundle down the aisle with their food carts. I'm almost loathe to do so, but I gently shake Yami awake. "You have to wake up now," I mutter in his ear, "Unless you don't want to eat."

He makes a whining noise but his glazed eyes open, slowly looking around before landing on me. He seems to realise our position – good observation, by the way – and blushes, sitting himself upright rather quickly. The eternally-smiling attendant hands us steaming trays of tasteless food before going on her way. I sit mine on the pull-out tray and eat, even if everything tastes exactly the same. Yami is only picking at his food, twirling the plastic spork around in the greyish peas.

"Um... Yugi?" he asks quietly, voice still slurred with sleep, "What's your house like?"

I blink at him, thoughtfully chewing the over-cooked, bland chicken in my mouth. "Well, the ranch is pretty big, and we have mostly horses, but there's a herd of cattle and a flock of sheep. We make most of our money during the barley and wheat harvests, but wool and milk sell for a bit too. You have to work, but the scenery is beautiful, and the house is nice. Its hours away from the town, but I don't think that's a bad thing."

He looks down at his food. "Oh," is all he says. He finally takes an actual bite, and we both eat in silence for a while. He swallows and speaks again, "So, who do you live with?"

"My mother and grandfather," I mumble, "I do a lot of stuff out in the fields that Grandpa's too old to do anymore, and mum does a lot of work with the animals."

There is another uncomfortable silence. I'm finished with the remaining slop in the plastic tray, so I place it on Yami's table and twist a little to the side. I close my eyes, but I don't fall asleep for half an hour or so. When I do, I have no dreams.

The very next thing I'm aware of is someone softly shaking me awake. I smack their hand away and grumble. I'm shaken again, harder this time, so I snap my eyes open and hiss, "What?"

"We're landing." Yami quirks an eyebrow at me. I blush and quietly apologise, keeping my gaze trained on my feet, which I do so for the next twenty or so minutes until we're actually on the ground. I grab my bag and shove mine and Yami's way into the too narrow aisle, painfully slowly making our way to the exit. Pegasus is about two people behind us, but as long as we're within seeing distance I think we're ok.

With the treacherous struggle out the door survived, bags in hand and Yami trotting along behind me like a lost puppy, we head out to the maxi taxi that Pegasus called for. Yami's head is magnetised to my shoulder yet again, his eyes drawn shut like blinds against the harsh morning sun, the wig brushing over his face. I pull the glasses off – he shies away and nuzzles into my collar – and turn a glare at Pegasus as he giggles behind his hand at my predicament.

"Oh, shut up, you," I snap and toss the glasses at his head. He sits, quite stunned and silent, when they hit him square between the eyes. _Woooow! It's a one-hit wonder~!_ The announcer from Pokémon Stadium (Nintendo 64) chirps in my head. I shake him away, ignoring his complaints, and glance at the silverette across from me.

Pegasus has one leg crossed over the other and is gazing at me intently, visible eye twinkling cheekily. "You like him, don't you?" he pesters in a girlish tone, grin plastered on his face.

"I do no such thing," I reply snobbishly, turning my nose up at him with a sniff. "You, sir, are a deluded, gossiping high-schooler."

"Of course!" One arm is flung up almost triumphantly, "I, Madame, am surprised it took you so long to notice."

We do this quite often. Apparently, I would make the perfect housewife and thus, I am Madame Mutou. I can't really complain; I suppose I brought it upon myself, really, with how much I mother my friends and do what my father would have considered 'woman-work' at home. Mum is great, but she can't cook to save her life.

I idly wonder if Tristan will be there when we arrive. He'd been spending more time in town when I left, perhaps he'd found himself a house and has moved out of our place? The rocking of the car becomes a hypnotising lull, and I am drawn slowly into the recesses of sleep.

***rolls over and dies***

**Again, I am so incredibly sorry about how late this was. I need to get back into the swing of this fic...**

**Reviews are much appreciated (helpful ones are even better) but with the crappiness of this chapter... I'm not expecting anything terrific.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm genuinely – and pleasantly – surprised that I got reviews so quickly. So, thanks to EgyptsBlackRose, samaurai and AquosRiverRere for reviewing so soon after that incredibly late post.**

**This took a bit more of a comedic feel than I wanted it to, I think, but I'm not overall displeased.**

**Thank you all for following, faving, whatever the heck else you did! And to AnimeHannah for getting me off my lazy ass.**

Yami POV

Well, being on Yugi's ranch was interesting, to say the least.

When we got there, I was too lethargic and paranoid to leave the pale yellow, second-storey guest room, but with much coaxing, had slowly ventured out to the hall, stairs, living room and eventually the entire bottom floor. Now I was even brave enough to go outside to the barn! With Yugi, of course. I never went anywhere by myself.

Speaking of Yugi, I never took the time to realise how _much_ he actually does. Seriously, he cooks, fixes, builds, entertains and manages pretty much everything. I would've thought his scatter-brained step-mother would at least make him something to eat when he came in of an afternoon, tired and a little dusty, but she merely flitted about, polishing ornaments and arranging flowers. She kept the place obnoxiously clean – well, not _clean_ (Yugi did the hard work) but looking like one of those snobbish hotels you see in magazines – but she never went into mine, Yugi's or Mr Mutou's room.

I asked Yugi about where his real mother was when we first got here. He smiled and explained that she lived quite far away, that he only stayed with her for two weeks out of the whole year. He spun stories of her, making her out to be a dragon-slaying, gun-slinging hero of a woman who could do anything and juggle flaming knives on the side. Anything, that was, but cook. Apparently his father was, in Mr Mutou's words, a 'dick-faced %$#^ sucking )&*! %^"}{~ sack' who abandoned his family for some pretty Canadian teenager a few years ago (for the second time, the first being the step-mother). But the woman denied it left and right.

Mr Mutou – he insists I call him either Solomon or Grandpa – can swear like a sailor and apparently refuses to believe that he's old now. He's constantly moving and doing something, be it trying to convince Yugi to let him help, building something in the barn or working with the animals they had. It's actually sort of inspiring. But nothing I could do. Large animals... frighten me. Especially the horses.

Seriously, they're everywhere! I looked out the window at breakfast one morning and one was _right there_! It tried to eat me! ... Alright, so maybe it was eating the grass... on the other side of the fence... about twelve feet away from the house... But still; it was right there! Mangy thing looked at me funny.

But Yugi seems quite taken with them. He rides them, pets them and even talks to them like they're intelligent humans. They all just trail after him like starving puppies whenever he enters the paddock. He offered me a ride once to show me around the property, and I promptly spent the rest of the day hiding in my room. He never brought it up again, but he still shot me strange looks all the next day.

The barn is pretty cool, too. It's not like I'd imagine one to be, but Yugi tells me that what I'm imagining is the stable, and that he won't take me in there if I can't treat the horses with 'the respect they deserve'. Psh, what does that even mean? _The respect they deserve_, what are they, royalty?

But Yugi himself is so much different here than what I've seen of him at school. He's... more open, I suppose – more relaxed. He was calm and happy with his friends at school, but I'd never seen them in complete private, so perhaps this was normal for him. He's always got this happy-go-lucky grin, sparkling eyes and a positively adorable dusting of tan freckles that he never seemed to show in Domino. Maybe they faded with the lack of constant sun like a normal tan? That was my best bet.

The one bad thing I can think of about being here – besides the horses – was the farm hand. Tristan, I think. He and Yugi are _close_. Pretty much as close as Yugi and Joey. He's tall, much taller than me, and has an oddly-shaped spike of brown hair and a tan across his pointed face. He'll just randomly come up and touch Yugi out of nowhere, be it ruffling his hair or swinging him around like a child. They both grin and laugh like a happy little soap-opera couple, but I can feel the disgust practically roll up my spine in waves when it happens. I hate it. I hate how they act. I hate that I'm so... so...

So jealous.

_I_ want to touch Yugi like that. Hold his small but strong hand, push that one little lock of hair back, wipe the dust from his sweet face. I want Yugi to _like_ me, not just see me as a burden or someone he has to look after. I know I am, but that doesn't mean I want to feel like it. Mrs Mutou makes me feel like an unwanted hotel guest, but Solomon is very welcoming. He'll invite me to play one of his card games with him and regale stories of his younger days in the detective business and gaming circuit. Yugi will bring us in lunch and sit for about an hour, before his step-mother comes in pestering him about some chore he forgot to do or something that needs fixing.

She's like the housewife from hell, I swear. All she does is flutter about looking nice. There isn't another human around for miles and she thinks people will see her and care what she looks like? Crazy female. I see now why I never payed much attention to them. Yugi, however, I could picture in a dress any time. With a little apron and chocolate smudges on his cheeks as he places some sort of desert on a table. Now _that_ was a nice fantasy!

"Yami?" Yugi's gentle voice both stunned and excited me. And no, my current day-dream had _nothing_ to do with it. He pushed open the door and stepped into the ye-olde hotel-styled room I was staying in. His hair, pulled back into a pony-tail at the nape of his neck, had small bits of straw sticking out of it and looked like it had been through a cyclone-fan. Messy and dusty as he was, he was still the best looking thing I'd ever seen. "I just came to ask what you wanted for dinner. We've got enough to make pretty much anything."

"Even take away?" I asked hopefully, feeling a smile pulling at my lips. It had been far too long since my last take-out. Yugi's home cooking was great, but it just wasn't grease on a bun, you know?

A finger pressed to his lips in thought. I'd seen the look before; he was pretty much going through the last shopping list in his head to determine what was in the kitchen. He's been a lot nicer to me since I came here, but I can tell it's just manners. I don't think anything on earth will make him actually enjoy my company. "Well... I can make something Chinese, if that helps. Or pizza. I think we've got some mince, so we could do burgers. Whichever takes your fancy?"

"Pizza sounds great." I smiled charmingly at him, hoping that by being polite I could somehow earn his favour. He nodded but stayed where he was, muttering to himself. Ok, so it didn't quite go as I'd hoped, but it was a start! He no longer looked at me like I was a barnacle anymore. I could almost hear Marik screech in my ear, 'LEVEL UP! ACHIEVEMENT GET!'

I silently prayed to any God that would – or wouldn't, in retrospect – listen, '_Strike me down now if I have a shoulder-devil-Marik... thing._'

Eventually, Yugi broke the almost-silence, looking back to me from the floor, "Alright. I'll get that started in about an hour. Still have things to get done before then."

"Why don't you ask your step-mother to make dinner? She doesn't do anything else," I stated plainly before my brain had quite processed what I was saying. Once it did, I tried desperately to regain what small respect he had for me, "I-I didn't mean it like that – it's just that – well, I mean, um... I'm sorry. I'll just shut up now." I sunk low onto the matrass I was sitting on, hoping against hope that the fluffy white quilt would morph into a slime monster and swallow me up.

Rather than scowl and scold me, as my new shoulder-Marik scoffed and declared that he would, he tossed his head back and laughed, long and loud. It was a glorious sound, and I almost found myself melting right into the floorboards because of it. "Nah, it's fine. Useless hag can't do anything but pester me anyway."

Of course he wouldn't care if you insulted his step-mother, I tutted to myself, he doesn't like her in the least, you fool! '_Quick, say something witty!_' Shoulder-Marik wailed, flailing his little arms about. He had arms now? Thanks to my _spectacularly_ (read also: sarcasm) functioning brain – that, in my defence, had been smooshed into some sort of Yugi-induced confusion – the only thing I came up with was, "A hag is a horse."

He looked at me oddly, violet eyes considering me beneath quirked eyebrows. "Not quite," he said slowly, as if trying to see if there was an ulterior motive behind my mistaken statement. "What you're thinking of is a 'nag'. Why don't you come out and meet the horses? You haven't been near them since you got here."

"No."

I would climb a tree, swim a lake, heck, maybe even jump off a roof if it made him happy, but I would _NOT_ go near those ruddy four-legged beasts. Especially with that itchy wig and glasses inhibiting my fleeing skills.

"What do you mean 'no'?" Yugi asked, stepping closer to the bed. I kept my gaze firmly on my knees, knowing full well that I would get swept up in his eyes and do anything he requested if I looked directly at him. "They're really not as bad as you think."

"No. I'm not doing it. They can go break their legs for all I care, so long as they don't come near me."

"Now you're just being mean, they've never done anything to you." he huffed, blowing that one lock of hair that was shorter than the rest from between his eyes. I didn't dare look up to meet his disappointed amethyst gaze. I knew that he knew I had an irrational fear of the equestrian species, including zebras and donkeys and mules (oh my!) so it was pure and utter cruelty to try and make me do anything else, I reasoned. Yugi was many things, but cruel was not one of them. I thought. I hoped.

Oh, how wrong I was.

My feet were frozen to the ground, knees locked and shoulders tense. My eyes scanned my opponent over the top of the fake spectacles, taking in every detail that may help in my battle against it. Its sides heaved with the hot breath that lapped out of wide nostrils like puffs of smoke, muscles bulging and poised to attack. Powerful legs kept it standing tall and proud, like the pillars of an ancient cathedral. Tendrils of coarse hair kept its devious eyes hidden, disguising any evil plots for my demise it may have been planni–

"Yami, it's a falabella. You can't get horses much smaller than this." Yugi said blandly, eyeing me sceptically as I observed the creature. The tiny horse's ears barely reached my hip, for goodness sake! It was practically the size of a dog. Jerking its head back, the _thing_ snorted and made a high-pitched giggling sound, one bright brown eye becoming visible through the fringe that covered its face.

"It mocks me!" I complained loudly, holding my arms up in surrender and backing away. The little animal next to Yugi was snowy white, with dark brown spots about the size of my fist splattered all over it and light brown hair.

Yugi merely chortled at me, walking out of the stall – the fala-whatever trailing after him at a strange skipping gait – and through another door into what the old, slightly rusty sign said was a 'tack room'. I was about to follow when I heard Yugi say something that made my blood fizzle with jealousy.

"You're still here, Tristan? I thought you would've gone home by now."

"Nah, gotsta polish one more saddle b'fore I'm done." The almost stereotypical country hick accent Tristan had annoyed me to no end, but I stepped into the room quickly before Tristan made any comments to Yugi about me. Yugi was already sitting down on a bench, a large comb in his hand, while Tristan was perched opposite him, a confusing piece of leather in his lap. "Whatchu doin' out here?"

"I was just gonna brush out Molly's mane and tail and muck out her stall before I start dinner; introduce Yami to the horses with baby steps. Isn't that right?" he turned to me for confirmation.

"Yeah," I nodded, bored, keeping my distance from the tiny equine that had dropped its, no, her head onto Yugi's lap.

A huff from behind me made me jump. I spun around, expecting to see some sort of monster-horse that towered over me ready to devour me soul, but a dog about the same size as the little pony padded past me lazily. It slumped to the floor at Tristan's side, rolling onto its back and gazing up pleadingly.

"Git out, Sergeant," Tristan spoke, not unkindly, but sternly. The brown dog huffed and glanced up, ears perking a bit, "I still got work to do. Why don'tya go pester Yami?"

"Don't come near me, I'm a cat person." I raised my hands in surrender as the dog rolled onto its side and stared at me with plotting brown eyes. It was contemplating the best way to eat my legs in my sleep and make it look like an accident did it, I swore.

"Damn felines. Useless as anything'." Tristan grumbled to himself, focussing back on the saddle in his lap as he did.

Yugi frowned as he ran the brush through the coarse strands of hair on the tiny horse's neck, "Now that's not true. I like cats – they must do something good, the Ancient Egyptians worshipped them."

Tristan's eyes flashed with a smug grin as he spoke, "Yeah, along with the dung beetle."

"Apologise to Crookshanks!" Yugi demanded, laughing loudly. Even the hors– Molly snorted, flicking her hair back and messing up Yugi's work. I desperately searched my mind for the reference I'd obviously missed, but I couldn't decide of it was Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. I'd only ever seen the movies a few times and I never read the books. **(A/N: and for that, Yami, you will die)**

I cleared my throat awkwardly, shuffling on my feet. Yugi seemed to remember that I existed, as his eyes snapped up from untangling hair from the brush in his hand and met mine. "Yami, do you want to try?"

"Um, what?"

'_Oh, yes, how very intelligent you are, Yami_' Shoulder-Marik sarcastically applauded, '_I can see it now; Yugi will be all over you and marry you for your brains within three days._' I shook my head and gazed questioningly at Yugi's questioning gaze.

"Do you," he pointed at my chest, "want to try," he held up the brush like a trophy, "brushing Molly's mane?"

"No, not really." I admitted honestly with a shrug of my shoulders. I could see Yugi's eyes drop a bit – disappointment, maybe? But small as she was, a horse is a horse (of course, of course) and Molly still counted.

Yugi's movements became small and close o his body. He looked down at his lap and slowly scratched around Molly's ears. His voice was deadpanned and quieter than before. "Oh. Alright."

Shoulder-Marik promptly kicked me in the cheek.

Dinner was always an interesting event. Yugi would cook something yummy that me and Solomon would be happy to just eat on out laps (or out of the pot) but Mrs Mutou made a fuss of setting the table with the good cutlery, fancy plates and neatly folded material napkins. Yugi and Solomon would roll their eyes and take their food to the lounge or their bedrooms while she went on about how they were 'rude' and 'uncivilised'.

She'd use one plate from the many she'd set up, place it in the sink and promptly claim the TV to watch her stupid, bad chick-flicks. Yugi would wash up the plates and have to go out of his way to make sure that the fancy one was hand-washed, dried and never put through the dishwasher.

"What does she actually do around here?" I asked Yugi one night as I – reluctantly – helped unstack the dishwasher after dinner. I found myself pondering this thought aloud more often than I probably should have.

"Not an awful lot," he replied with a half-shrug. "Honestly, she just sort of takes up space. She may have been helpful once, but such times are lost to the ages, so long ago that not even the spirits that live in the ancient oak tree recall it fully."

I chuckled. Yugi did that a lot. He'd take something simple and word it in such a way that it sounded like an old folklore or something.

"Well, we've got nothing else to do and I don't have to be up early tomorrow," Yugi stated as he straightened up and dumped the tea towel next to the sink, "What say you to a movie marathon?"

"I say bring it on." I grinned.

**Domino Boarding School**

A mangy-looking boy with a scraggly mop of green hair grinned maliciously as he slipped a sachet of white powder into a glass of white wine. The silver liquid hissed but settled, allowing no hint that it had been laced with poison. He'd been keeping up regular doses of this slow-acting drug that would slowly eat away at a person's insides for months. One dose of this size and all you'd have was a stomach ache, but if taken continuously it would begin to decompose the mucus lining the stomach and through the intestinal walls. Very painful, but effective and hard to trace.

Weevil took the drink over to his ailing 'Master', the aqua-haired man accepting the comforting drink carefully in his frail fingers. He took comfort in his favourite beverage now that he had fallen so ill, never once suspecting that it was the path his downfall took.

"Thank you, Weevil. You are no longer required; be gone." He spoke, lifting the glass to his lips and sipping at the alcohol.

Weevil scurried out of the room, but stayed hovering outside the door. No one who passed questioned it – all knew of the poorly timed sickness their Master was suffering from, he would need the weedy little servant close should he need attention quickly. That was the brilliance of his plan; no one would think twice until it was too late. He'd spent the first three months of his 'employment' making a cowardly image for himself. As soon as no one spared him a second glance was when he began playing out his scheme.

The dose had been doubled over the past week. He normally would have liked to drag the suffering out as long as possible, but with the police getting so close things had to be sped up.

The clatter of glass on the floor followed by a short series of thumps brought him to attention. Everyone in the claustrophobic, dark grey hall heard it. He stammered a bit and 'nervously' entered the room. He could hear feet shuffling outside the door, he would need to make this quick. Hurrying to the display of antique weapons on the far wall, he selected a long katana blade with a bloody red ribbon twined around the sheathe. How ironic.

Taking the blade from its case with a slick noise of steel against the air, he crept towards the prone form of the gasping Dartz. The once proud man clutched at his stomach as it burned from the inside out, blood clotting and flowing from his mouth as he hacked for air. The rasp of his throat, which was coated from the inside with small hives (an unexpected but welcomed side effect of the poison) was almost enough to make Weevil wince, but he steadied his grip around the hilt of the sword and readied it to swing down.

A voice from the other side of the door asked what was going on, fists pounding on it before managing to shove it open, the swarm of people who surged in freezing in their tracks at the sight before them. No one dared even _look_ at Dartz sideways, and here was the measly, nerdy child they all pushed around at one point or another fully prepared to murder one of the most devious men alive.

Having been trained to do so, the burliest of the thugs charged with an enraged cry, clawed hands ready to shred the skinny boy to pieces. But the room was large, and they got nowhere near when the sword swung down in a graceful arch to decapitate Dartz with a much less graceful _squelch-crack._

He'd been trying to crawl away. He'd pushed himself forward as the katana sliced down, ending up hitting the very base of his slim neck. But the thicker spine held firm, keeping the twitching body intact. Bi-coloured eyes rolled around and tongue swelled slightly, falling forward. Arteries pumped dark blood onto the floor, severed nerve-endings twitching through the spew of steaming hot blood that drowned them. The hollow wind-pipe quickly became a tunnel for blood and gunk to flow from chopped neck to mouth and nose.

Frowning, Weevil ignored the now frozen thugs and pulled the blade back with a squishing sound. Blood ran in rivulets down the silver steel, the backsplash having splattered his face with the warm liquid. Bringing it up above him again, blood dripping down onto him and running off his hair, he swung down again. The blade wedged between two sections of spine, nicking through fleshy cords and nerves. Pressing with all his strength, he managed to pry the bones apart. The head scuttled forwards a few inches with the force, clammy skin slithering through the pool of blood.

Clenching the long hair in his fist, chopped in some places, Weevil lifted it triumphantly. The head, with drooping jaw, swung through the air at his knees like some sick sort of yoyo. Weevil almost giggled with glee.

An outraged roar from one of the thugs startled him enough to drop it. Bringing the sword up in immediate defence, it jerked towards him as the burly man ran straight into it. The sharp metal pierced his flesh instantly, slicing deep into his stomach and scraping against the back of his ribs. He gasped and floundered, coughing and curling over, trying to back off but unable to do so.

Realising what had happened and that he was not, in fact, being strangled, Weevil felt a childish grin cross his featured. He giggled, a high-pitched sound, mad with the idea that he, the little guy, finally, _FINALLY_, had all the power. Drawing the sword back slowly, not all the way, he smirked at the feel of it dragging against flesh and organs. Suddenly he drew it harshly sideways, slicing though the man's side. He fell to his knees, shock filling his face as he tried pathetically to hold his spilling innards to himself. He toppled over, the wet lumps of meat sliding along the floor and out of the empty cavity of his torso.

Weevil's eyes flashed with pride, that _he_ had done this, that _he_ called the shots now. He turned to the gathered crowd, tapping the bloodied sword playfully against his knee, like a jockey would their riding crop.

"Now," he spoke, high voice sounding constrained as he reined in the joyous, hysterical laughter he could feel bubbling merrily up in his gut. Meeting every set of eyes that were brave enough to gaze at him, he bared his teeth in a mad grin.

"There's going to be some changes around here."

**Whuuuuuuuuuuuutt? Weevil actually did something? *le gasp!***

**Yeah, he's gone a tad bit power-crazy.**

**Review for more crazy Weevil antics?**


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